Production of dihydrosterculic acid and derivatives thereof

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to recombinant cells, particularly recombinant plant cells, which are capable of producing dihydrosterculic acid and/or derivatives thereof. The present invention also relates to methods of producing oil comprising dihydrosterculic acid and/or derivatives thereof.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a §371 national stage of PCT International Application No. PCT/AU2012/001593, filed Dec. 21, 2012, claiming the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/580,567, filed Dec. 27, 2011, the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

REFERENCE TO A SEQUENCE LISTING

This application incorporates-by-reference nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences which are present in the file named “140627_2251_83666_A_PCT_US_Substitute_Sequence_Listing_JR.txt,” which is 272 kilobytes in size, and which was created Jun. 24, 2014 in the IBM-PC machine format, having an operating system compatibility with MS-Windows, which is contained in the text file filed Jun. 27, 2014 as part of this application.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to recombinant cells, particularly recombinant plant cells, which are capable of producing dihydrosterculic acid and/or derivatives thereof. The present invention also relates to methods of producing oil comprising dihydrosterculic acid and/or derivatives thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Dihydrosterculic acid (DHS) is a fatty acid containing a ‘mid-chain’ cyclopropane ring structure that can be processed into industrial oils with the rare combination of high oxidative stability and low melting points (Kinsman, 1979; Zhang et al., 2004).

Although routes for the chemical synthesis of DHS are known, these reactions generate a series of side-products requiring purification procedures (Zhang et al., 2004). In contrast, biological routes of synthesis accurately generate cyclopropanated fatty acids from membrane-bound 18:1 by cyclopropanated synthetases (CPFAS) isolated from various plants (Bao et al., 2002) and bacteria (Wang et al., 1992).

The plant CPFAS isolated from Sterculia foetida, and likely all plant CPFAS enzymes, are atypical lipid modifying enzymes by virtue of using 18:1 at the sn1 position of PC (Bao et al., 2003), rather than the acyl-groups attached to the sn2 position of PC, such as FAD2 (Stymne and Appelqvist, 1978). The DHS formed in transgenic tobacco cell lines was found predominantly on the PC fraction, suggesting that sn1-bound DHS is not easily moved into neutral lipid fractions, such as the glycerol backbone of triacylglycerides (TAG, (Bao et al., 2002)). Recently a cotton CPFAS (GhCPFAS) expressed in Arabidopsis seed produced ˜1% DHS in seed lipid analysis (Yu et al., 2011), suggesting that the transfer of DHS from the site of synthesis on PC into seed oil is problematic.

There is a need for recombinant cells with enhanced levels of DHS production.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present inventors have developed processes and cells for producing dihydrosterculic acid (DHS) and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof.

In one aspect, the present invention provides a process for producing oil containing dihydrosterculic acid (DHS) and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof, the process comprising

i) obtaining plant cells, algal cells or fungal cells comprising DHS, and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof, the DHS and/or fatty acid derivative thereof being esterified in triacylglycerols in the cells, wherein at least about 3% of the total fatty acid in extractable oil in the cells is DHS and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof, and,

ii) extracting oil from the cells so as to thereby produce the oil.

In an embodiment, the plants cells of step i) are obtained as a plant or part thereof comprising said cells, such as a leaf or a stem.

In an embodiment, the part is a vegetative plant tissue. In an embodiment, the plant cells are cells other than cells in seeds.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a process for producing oil containing dihydrosterculic acid (DHS) and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof, the process comprising

i) obtaining an oilseed or vegetative plant tissue comprising DHS, and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof, the DHS and/or fatty acid derivative thereof being esterified in triacylglycerols in the oilseed, wherein at least about 3% of the total fatty acid in extractable oil in the oilseed or vegetative plant tissue is DHS and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof, and

ii) extracting oil from the oilseed or vegetative plant tissue so as to thereby produce the oil.

Examples of oilseeds useful for the invention include, but are not limited to, seed from a canola plant, a corn plant, a soybean plant, a lupin plant, a peanut plant, a sunflower plant, a cotton plant, a safflower plant, a crambe (Crambe abyssinica) plant, a camelina (Camelina sativa) plant, a plant of a Euphorbiaceae species such as jatropha (Jatropha curcas), a plant of a Brassica species other than canola such as Brassica carinata or Brassica juncea, a flax plant or an Arabidopsis plant.

In an embodiment, the process comprises the step of extracting the oil comprises crushing the oilseed. The process may further comprise purifying the oil, such as by degumming, decolourising, or deodorising the oil.

In a further embodiment, at least about 5%, or preferably at least about 7%, or more preferably at least about 10%, or even more preferably at least about 12%, or most preferably at least about 15%, of the total fatty acid in the extractable oil in the oilseed, vegetative plant tissue or cells is DHS and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof. In an embodiment, at least about 50%, preferably at least about 75%, more preferably at least about 90% of the DHS and/or fatty acid derivative thereof in the extractable lipid from the oilseed, vegetative plant tissue or cells is esterified in the form of triacylglycerols. Each combination of these figures is envisaged.

In another embodiment, about 3% to about 15%, about 3% to 10%, or about 3% to about 7.5% of the total fatty acid in the extractable oil in the oilseed, vegetative plant tissue or cells is DHS and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof.

In a further embodiment, the ratio of oleic acid to DHS and/or fatty acid derivative thereof in the extractable oil in the oilseed, vegetative plant tissue or cells is less than about 2:1, preferably less than about 1.5:1, more preferably less than about 1:1.

In an embodiment, step i) comprises obtaining at least about 100, or at least about 1000, or at least about 10000, seeds, or pieces of vegetative tissue from at least about 100, or at least about 1000, or at least about 10000, plants, which on average comprise at least about 3% DHS as a percentage of the total fatty acids in the extractable oil in the oilseeds or vegetative plant tissues.

In a further embodiment, there is no detectable fatty acid derivative of DHS present in the extractable oil, such as sterculic acid and/or malvalic acid.

Also provided is a recombinant plant cell, algal cell or fungal cell comprising an exogenous polynucleotide encoding a cyclopropane fatty acid synthetase (CPFAS), wherein extractable oil in the cell contains dihydrosterculic acid (DHS) and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof, and wherein the polynucleotide is operably linked to one or more promoters that are capable of directing expression of the polynucleotide in the cell, and wherein the cell has one or more of the following features,

i) at least about 3%, or at least about 5%, or at least about 7%, or at least about 10%, or at least about 12%, or at least about 15%, of the total fatty acid in the extractable oil in the cell is DHS and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof,

ii) the CPFAS converts oleic acid to DHS in the cell with a conversion efficiency of at least about 45%, or at least about 50%, or at least about 55%,

iii) the ratio of oleic acid to DHS and/or fatty acid derivative thereof in the extractable oil in the cell is less than about 2:1, preferably less than about 1.5:1, more preferably less than about 1:1, or

iv) the CPFAS comprises amino acids having a sequence as provided in any one of SEQ ID NOs: 1, or 21 to 28, a biologically active fragment thereof, or an amino acid sequence which is at least 30% identical to any one or more of SEQ ID NOs: 1, or 21 to 28, wherein the CPFAS is no longer than about 600 amino acids, more preferably no longer than 500 amino acids, in length.

Other features above relating the a process of the invention also apply to the recombinant cell of the invention.

In a preferred embodiment, the cell at least comprises features i) and/or iv). In a further embodiment, the cell comprises all four of features i), ii), iii) and iv). In another embodiment, the cell at least comprises feature iv). In a further embodiment, the cell is homozygous for the exogenous polynucleotide.

In an embodiment, a corresponding cell lacking the exogenous polynucleotide does not produce DHS.

In an embodiment, the CPFAS converts oleic acid to DHS in the cell with a conversion efficiency of about 45% to about 90%, about 45% to about 70%, about 45% to about 60%, about 55% to about 90%, or about 55% to about 70%.

In a preferred embodiment, the cell further comprises an exogenous polynucleotide encoding a silencing suppressor, wherein the polynucleotide is operably linked to one or more promoters that are capable of directing expression of the polynucleotide in the cell.

In a further preferred embodiment, the cell further comprises an exogenous polynucleotide encoding an enzyme having fatty acid acyltransferase activity such as an diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) and/or monoacylglycerol (MGAT) activity, and wherein the polynucleotide is operably linked to one or more promoters that are capable of directing expression of the polynucleotide in the cell.

In yet a further preferred embodiment, the cell further comprises an exogenous polynucleotide encoding a transcription factor polypeptide that increases the expression of one or more glycolytic or fatty acid biosynthetic genes in the cell such as a Wrinkled 1 (WRI1) transcription factor, a Leafy Cotyledon 1 (Lec1) transcription factor, a Leafy Cotyledon 2 (LEC2) transcription factor, a Fus3 transcription factor, an ABI3 transcription factor, a Dof4 transcription factor, a BABY BOOM (BBM) transcription factor, or a Dof11 transcription factor, and wherein the polynucleotide is operably linked to one or more promoters that are capable of directing expression of the polynucleotide in the cell.

In yet a further preferred embodiment, the cell further comprises an exogenous polynucleotide encoding an oleosin, and wherein the polynucleotide is operably linked to one or more promoters that are capable of directing expression of the polynucleotide in the cell.

In yet a further preferred embodiment, the cell further comprises an exogenous polynucleotide encoding a double stranded RNA (dsRNA) which comprises a nucleotide sequence which is complementary to a region of a target RNA such as a target RNA encoding an endogenous Δ12 desaturase, DHS Δ9 desaturase, palmitoyl-ACP thioesterase such as FATB, or lipid handling enzyme, preferably a fatty acid acyltransferase such as an lysophosphatidyl-choline acyltransferase (LPCAT), a lipase such as a phospholipase D, or a fatty acid synthetase such as a long-chain acyl CoA synthetase (LACS), and wherein the polynucleotide is operably linked to one or more promoters that are capable of directing expression of the polynucleotide in the cell. The cell may comprises two or more such exogenous polynucleotides encoding different dsRNAs comprising sequences complementary to different target RNAs.

In an embodiment, the cell comprises a first exogenous polynucleotide encoding CPFAS, preferably a truncated plant CPFAS or variant thereof, and one or more additional exogenous polynucleotides which encode one or more of:

i) an fatty acid acyltransferase such as an MGAT or DGAT, preferably a DGAT1,

ii) a transcription factor polypeptide that increases the expression of one or more glycolytic or fatty acid biosynthetic genes in the cell such as a WRI1, LEC2 or BBM, preferably WRI1,

iii) a double stranded RNA (dsRNA) which comprises a nucleotide sequence which is complementary to a region of a target RNA of an endogenous lipid handling enzyme, preferably a fatty acid acyltransferase such as an LPCAT, or a lipase such as a phospholipase D,

iv) a double stranded RNA (dsRNA) which comprises a nucleotide sequence which is complementary to a region of a target RNA of an endogenous Δ12 desaturase,

v) oleosin, or

vi) a silencing suppressor polypeptide, wherein each exogenous polynucleotide is operably linked to a promoter which is capable of directing expression of the polynucleotide in the cell. In an embodiment, the cell comprises i) and ii), i) to iii), i) to iv), i) to v), i) to vi), i) and iii) to vi), i) to iii) and vi), or i), and iv) to vi).

In an embodiment, the cell further comprises an exogenous polynucleotide encoding a fatty acid elongase, and wherein the polynucleotide is operably linked to one or more promoters that are capable of directing expression of the polynucleotide in the cell. In this embodiment, the fatty acid derivative may be elongated DHS (eDHS).

In an embodiment, the cell comprises two exogenous polynucleotides encoding different CPFAS enzymes, wherein each polynucleotide is operably linked to one or more promoters that are capable of directing expression of the polynucleotide in the cell. Preferably, a first exogenous polynucleotide encodes a truncated plant CPFAS or variant thereof, and a second exogenous polynucleotide encodes a bacterial or fungal CPFAS or variant thereof.

Examples of truncated plant CPFAS enzymes or variant thereofs include, but are not limited to, those comprising amino acids having a sequence as provided in any one of SEQ ID NOs: 1, or 21 to 28, a biologically active fragment thereof, or an amino acid sequence which is at least 30% identical to any one or more of SEQ ID NOs: 1, or 21 to 28, wherein the CPFAS is no longer than about 600 amino acids, more preferably no longer than 500 amino acids, in length.

Examples of bacterial or fungal CPFAS enzymes or variant thereofs include, but are not limited to, those comprising amino acids having a sequence as provided in any one of SEQ ID NOs: 51 to 58, a biologically active fragment thereof, or an amino acid sequence which is at least 30% identical to any one or more of SEQ ID NOs: 51 to 58.

In a further embodiment, the cell further comprises one or more exogenous polynucleotides encoding a glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (GPAT), a 1-acyl-glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (LPAAT), an acyl-CoA:lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase (LPCAT), a phosphatidic acid phosphatase (PAP), or a combination of two or more thereof.

In a preferred embodiment, the cell is a plant cell such as a seed or leaf cell. In an embodiment, the cell is a leaf cell.

In an embodiment, the plant cell is a cell of an oilseed plant.

As the skilled person would appreciate, the oilseed, vegetative plant tissue or cells used in a process of the invention may have one or more features as defined above for a cell of the invention.

In a further aspect, the present invention provides a method of obtaining a cell of the invention, the method comprising

a) introducing into a cell an exogenous polynucleotide encoding a cyclopropane synthetase (CPFAS), wherein the polynucleotide is operably linked to one or more promoters that are capable of directing expression of the polynucleotide in the cell,

b) expressing the exogenous polynucleotide in the cell, and

c) performing one or more of the following

-   -   i) analysing the fatty acid composition of the cell, and         selecting a cell wherein at least about 3%, or at least about         5%, or at least about 7%, or at least about 10%, or at least         about 12%, or at least about 15%, of the total fatty acid in         extractable oil in the cell is DHS and/or a fatty acid         derivative thereof,     -   ii) analysing the fatty acid composition of the cell, and         selecting a cell wherein the CPFAS converts oleic acid to DHS in         the cell with a conversion efficiency of at least about 45%, or         at least about 50%, or at least about 55%,     -   iii) analysing the fatty acid composition of the cell, and         selecting a cell wherein the ratio of oleic acid to DHS and/or         fatty acid derivative thereof in extractable oil in the cell is         less than about 2:1, preferably less than about 1.5:1, more         preferably less than about 1:1, or     -   iv) analysing the cell for the exogenous polynucleotide, and         selecting a cell which comprises a CPFAS which comprises amino         acids having a sequence as provided in any one of SEQ ID NOs: 1,         or 21 to 28, a biologically active fragment thereof, or an amino         acid sequence which is at least 30% identical to any one or more         of SEQ ID NOs: 1, or 21 to 28, wherein the CPFAS is no longer         than about 600 amino acids, more preferably no longer than 500         amino acids, in length.

In an embodiment, the selected cell is a cell as defined above.

In yet a further aspect, the present invention provides a method of selecting a nucleic acid molecule encoding a truncated cyclopropane synthetase (CPFAS), the method comprising

i) obtaining a nucleic acid molecule operably linked to a promoter, wherein the nucleic acid encodes a truncated variant of a CPFAS,

ii) introducing the nucleic acid molecule into a plant cell, algal cell or fungal cell in which the promoter is active;

iii) expressing the nucleic acid molecule in the cell;

iv) analysing the fatty acid composition of the cell; and

v) selecting the nucleic acid molecule by selecting a cell having one or more of the following features,

-   -   a) at least about 3%, or at least about 5%, or at least about         7%, or at least about 10%, or at least about 15%, of the total         fatty acid in extractable oil in the cell is DHS and/or a fatty         acid derivative thereof,     -   b) converts oleic acid to DHS in the cell with a conversion         efficiency of at least about 45%, or at least about 50% or at         least about 55%, or     -   c) comprises a ratio of oleic acid to DHS and/or fatty acid         derivative thereof in extractable oil in the cell less about         than 2:1, preferably less than about 1.5:1, more preferably less         than about 1:1.

In an embodiment, the cell is a plant cell.

In an embodiment, the CPFAS comprises an amino acid sequence which is at least 30% identical to any one or more of SEQ ID NOs: 1, or 21 to 28. Preferably, the CPFAS is no longer than about 600 amino acids, more preferably no longer than 500 amino acids, in length.

Also provided is a transgenic plant, or part thereof, comprising a cell of the invention.

In a further aspect, the present invention provides a method of producing a transgenic plant of the invention or a part therefrom such as seed or leaf, the method comprising the steps of

i) introducing an exogenous polynucleotide encoding the CPFAS into a cell of a plant,

ii) regenerating a transgenic plant from the cell, and

iii) optionally obtaining seed from the plant, a part of the plant and/or producing one or more progeny plants from the transgenic plant, thereby producing the transgenic plant.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a method of producing a transgenic plant of the invention, the method comprising the steps of

i) crossing two parental plants, wherein at least one is a transgenic plant of the invention,

ii) screening one or more progeny plants from the cross for the presence or absence of the exogenous polynucleotide, and

iii) selecting a progeny plant which comprises the exogenous polynucleotide, thereby producing the transgenic plant.

In an embodiment, step iii) comprises analysing the phenotype of the plant, or one or more progeny plants thereof, for one or more of the following features,

a) at least about 3%, or at least about 5%, or at least about 7%, or at least about 10%, or at least about 12%, or at least about 15%, of the total fatty acid in extractable oil in the cell is DHS and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof,

b) conversion of oleic acid to DHS in the cell with a conversion efficiency of at least about 45%, or at least about 50%, or at least about 55%, or

c) a ratio of oleic acid to DHS and/or fatty acid derivative thereof in extractable oil in the cell of less than about 2:1, preferably less than about 1.5:1, more preferably less than about 1:1.

Also provided is a transgenic plant produced using a method of the invention. In an embodiment, the plant is homozygous for the exogenous polynucleotide which is integrated into the genome of the plant.

In a further aspect, the present invention provides a method of producing seed, the method comprising;

i) growing a plant of the invention, and

ii) harvesting the seed from the plant.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a method of producing DHS and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof, the method comprising culturing a cell of the invention and/or cultivating a plant, or part thereof, of the invention.

In an embodiment, the method further comprises extracting DHS and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof, from the cell and/or the plant or part thereof.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a product comprising or produced from DHS or a fatty acid derivative thereof produced from a cell of the invention and/or a plant, or part thereof, of the invention.

In yet a further aspect, the present invention provides a method of producing a fatty acid with a methyl group, the process comprising converting the cyclo-propyl group of DHS, or a fatty acid derivative thereof comprising a cyclo-propyl group, produced using the method of the invention, to a methyl group.

In an embodiment, the cyclo-propyl group is converted to a methyl group using hydrogenation.

In an embodiment, the fatty acid with a methyl group is isostearic acid having a methyl group attached at C9 or C10.

In a further aspect, the present invention provides a product comprising or produced from a fatty acid with a methyl group produced using the method of the invention.

In an embodiment, the product is a lubricant and/or used in cosmetics.

Also provided is the use of a cell of the invention and/or a plant, or part thereof, of the invention to manufacture an industrial product.

In a further aspect, the present invention provides DHS and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof produced by, or obtained from, a cell of the invention, a plant, or part thereof, of the invention or using a method of the invention.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a methylated fatty acid produced using a method of the invention.

In a further aspect, the present invention provides a composition comprising one or more of the cell of the invention, the plant or part thereof of the invention, the DHS and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof of the invention, and the methylated fatty acid of the invention.

Any embodiment herein shall be taken to apply mutatis mutandis to any other embodiment unless specifically stated otherwise.

The present invention is not to be limited in scope by the specific embodiments described herein, which are intended for the purpose of exemplification only. Functionally-equivalent products, compositions and methods are clearly within the scope of the invention, as described herein.

Throughout this specification, unless specifically stated otherwise or the context requires otherwise, reference to a single step, composition of matter, group of steps or group of compositions of matter shall be taken to encompass one and a plurality (i.e. one or more) of those steps, compositions of matter, groups of steps or group of compositions of matter.

The invention is hereinafter described by way of the following non-limiting Examples and with reference to the accompanying figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

FIG. 1: V2 allows overexpression of transgenes and their efficient silencing via hairpin RNAi. A, Time course of GFP expression with either no co-infiltrated VSP or the addition of V2 or p19. Image shows one representative leaf photographed up to 7 days post infiltration (dpi), and the image at 7 dpi is used to illustrate the labelling of each infiltration zone. B, Time course of the effect of V2 or p19 on hairpin-based silencing of GFP. The image shows one representative leaf photographed at 5 dpi.

FIG. 2: Western blot analysis of GFP expression in leaves sampled at 4 dpi. Image shows one experiment from a duplicate conducted on different leaves.

FIG. 3: Analysis of the composition of the phosphatidylcholine (PC) fraction of leaves infiltrated with various combinations of V2, p19 and hpNbFAD2. Leaves were sampled 5 dpi and the error bars represent the standard error of the mean from 5 independent leaves.

FIG. 4: Analysis of the content and composition of leaf oils when leaves were infiltrated with combinations of V2, p19, hpNbFAD2, DGAT1 and oleosin. Leaves were samples 5 dpi and error bars represent the standard error of the mean calculated from 5 independent leaves.

FIG. 5: The enzymatic production of DHS from oleic acid.

FIG. 6: Comparison of the production of DHS in leaf assays using either EcCPFAS or GhCPFAS in transient leaf assays. Leaves were harvested 4 dpi.

FIG. 7: Overexpression of transgenes and silencing of an endogene for improved fluxes of DHS into leaf oils. Leaves were harvested 4 dpi. These comparisons were conducted on 4 different leaves, and this figure shows results from one representative leaf.

FIG. 8: ‘Deep sequencing’ analysis of the size and distribution of small RNA populations generated by a hairpin targeting the endogene NbFAD2. The full-length NbFAD2 is portrayed indicating the region used to generate a 660 bp hairpin, hpNbFAD2. The size and distribution of the dominate classes of small RNAs on the forward (F) and reverse (R) strand of the NbFAD2 is illustrated below. Each track is rescaled to show the relatively uneven distribution of small RNAs across the target.

FIG. 9: Absolute numbers of the dominant small RNA size classes generated by hpNbFAD2. The relative percentage of each size class is given in the text.

FIG. 10: DHS is accumulated in leaf oils.

FIG. 11: Fatty acid profile of leaves producing DHS in the presence or absence of the elongase AtFAE1. Elongation experiments were conducted on 3 different leaves, and the figure shows a representative fatty acid profile from a single leaf.

FIG. 12: The identification of eDHS using a range of GC and MS techniques. The upper panels show GC (FID) traces for lipid extracts from leaves infiltrated with the combination of genes as shown. Common and new metabolites are shown as indicated. Lower panels show the range of masses for metabolites first resolved on the GC, DHS and eDHS. The inserts for each MS indicates the structure of DHS and eDHS.

FIG. 13: Average wt % of DHS-FAME (black columns) and C18:1-FAME (white columns) from total FAME on lipid extracts from N. benthamiana leaf expressing GhCPFAS*, V2, DGAT1 and WRI1 (“base”), and additional hairpin constructs against endogenous genes coding for putative lipid handling enzymes. LACS, long-chain acyl CoA synthetase; PLDz, phospholipase D zeta; LPCAT, lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase. Error bars are standard deviations from at least six replicates.

KEY TO THE SEQUENCE LISTING

-   SEQ ID NO: 1—amino acid sequence of tomato leaf yellow curl virus V2     protein -   SEQ ID NO: 2—amino acid sequence of tomato bushy stunt virus P19     protein -   SEQ ID NO: 3—nucleotide sequence encoding tomato leaf yellow curl     virus V2 protein -   SEQ ID NO: 4—nucleotide sequence encoding tomato bushy stunt virus     P19 protein -   SEQ ID NO: 5—amino acid sequence of Sesmum indicum oleosin protein -   SEQ ID NO: 6—nucleotide sequence encoding Sesmum indicum oleosin     protein -   SEQ ID NO: 7—amino acid sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana AtFAE1     protein -   SEQ ID NO: 8—nucleotide acid sequence encoding Arabidopsis thaliana     AtFAE1 protein including 5′ intron sequence -   SEQ ID NO: 9—amino acid sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana AtDGAT1     protein -   SEQ ID NO: 10—nucleotide acid sequence encoding Arabidopsis thaliana     AtDGAT1 protein -   SEQ ID NO: 11—amino acid sequence of NbFAD2 protein -   SEQ ID NO: 12—nucleotide sequence encoding dsRNA hairpin     targeting N. benthamiana FAD2 -   SEQ ID NOs 13 to 20—oligonucleotide primers -   SEQ ID NO: 21—amino acid sequence of Gossypium hirsutum CPFAS-1     (truncated protein) -   SEQ ID NO: 22—amino acid sequence of Gossypium hirsutum CPFAS-2     (truncated protein) -   SEQ ID NO: 23—amino acid sequence of Gossypium hirsutum CPFAS-3     (truncated protein) -   SEQ ID NO: 24—amino acid sequence of Oryza sativa CPFAS (truncated     protein) -   SEQ ID NO: 25—amino acid sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana CPFAS     (truncated protein) -   SEQ ID NO: 26—amino acid sequence of Sterculia foetida CPFAS     (truncated protein) -   SEQ ID NO: 27—amino acid sequence of Medicago truncatula CPFAS     (truncated protein) -   SEQ ID NO: 28—amino acid sequence of Zea mays CPFAS (truncated     protein) -   SEQ ID NO: 29—amino acid sequence of Gossypium hirsutum CPFAS-1 -   SEQ ID NO: 30—amino acid sequence of Gossypium hirsutum CPFAS-2 -   SEQ ID NO: 31—amino acid sequence of Gossypium hirsutum CPFAS-3 -   SEQ ID NO: 32—amino acid sequence of Oryza sativa CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 33—amino acid sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 34—amino acid sequence of Sterculia foetida CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 35—amino acid sequence of Medicago truncatula CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 36—amino acid sequence of Zea mays CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 37—nucleotide sequence encoding Gossypium hirsutum     CPFAS-1 (truncated protein) -   SEQ ID NO: 38—nucleotide sequence encoding Gossypium hirsutum     CPFAS-2 (truncated protein) -   SEQ ID NO: 39—nucleotide sequence encoding Gossypium hirsutum     CPFAS-3 (truncated protein) -   SEQ ID NO: 40—nucleotide sequence encoding Oryza sativa CPFAS     (truncated protein) -   SEQ ID NO: 41—nucleotide sequence encoding Arabidopsis thaliana     CPFAS (truncated protein) -   SEQ ID NO: 42—nucleotide sequence encoding Sterculia foetida CPFAS     (truncated protein) -   SEQ ID NO: 43—nucleotide sequence encoding Zea mays CPFAS (truncated     protein) -   SEQ ID NO: 44—nucleotide sequence encoding Gossypium hirsutum     CPFAS-1 -   SEQ ID NO: 45—nucleotide sequence encoding Gossypium hirsutum     CPFAS-2 -   SEQ ID NO: 46—nucleotide sequence encoding Gossypium hirsutum     CPFAS-3 -   SEQ ID NO: 47—nucleotide sequence encoding Oryza sativa CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 48—nucleotide sequence encoding Arabidopsis thaliana     CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 49—nucleotide sequence encoding Sterculia foetida CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 50—nucleotide sequence encoding Zea mays CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 51—amino acid sequence of Aspergillus fumigatus CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 52—amino acid sequence of Escherichia coli CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 53—amino acid sequence of Salmonella enterica CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 54—amino acid sequence of Leishmania infantum CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 55—amino acid sequence of Synechoccus species CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 56—amino acid sequence of Neurospora crassa CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 57—amino acid sequence of Magnaporthe grisea CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 58—amino acid sequence of Coprinopsis cinerea CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 59—nucleotide sequence encoding Aspergillus fumigatus     CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 60—codon optimized E. Coli CPFAS open reading frame for     plant expression -   SEQ ID NO: 61—nucleotide sequence encoding Salmonella enterica CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 62—nucleotide sequence encoding Leishmania infantum CPFAS -   SEQ ID NO: 63—Cymbiduium ringspot tombus virus p19 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 64—Pelargonium necrotic spot virus p19 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 65—Havel river tombus virus p19 like silencing suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 66—Cucumber necrosis virus p19 like silencing suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 67—Grapevine Algerian latent virus p19 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 68—Pear latent virus p19 like silencing suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 69—Lisianthus necrotic virus p19 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 70—Lettuce necrotic stunt virus p19 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 71—Artichoke Mottled Crinkle virus p19 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 72—Carnation Italian ringspot virus p19 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 73—Maize necrotic steak virus p19 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 74—Watermelon chlorotic stunt virus V2 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 75—Okra yellow wrinkle virus V2 like silencing suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 76—Okra leaf curl virus V2 like silencing suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 77—Tomato leaf curl Togo virus V2 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 78—Ageratum leaf curl Cameroon virus V2 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 79—East African cassava mosaic Malawi virus V2 like     silencing suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 80—South African cassava mosaic virus V2 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 81—Tomato leaf curl Madagascar virus V2 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 82—Tomato leaf curl Zimbabwe virus V2 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 83—Tomato begomovirus V2 like silencing suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 84—Tomato leaf curl Namakely virus V2 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 85—Pepper yellow vein Mali virus V2 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 86—Tomato leaf curl Sudan virus V2 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO: 87—Tomato leaf curl Oman virus V2 like silencing     suppressor -   SEQ ID NO's 88 to 90—conserved motifs of DGATs and/or MGATs -   SEQ ID NO 91—open reading frame encoding N. benthamiana long-chain     acyl CoA synthetase 4 -   SEQ ID NO 92—N. benthamiana long-chain acyl CoA synthetase 4 -   SEQ ID NO 93—open reading frame encoding N. benthamiana long-chain     acyl CoA synthetase 7 -   SEQ ID NO 94—N. benthamiana long-chain acyl CoA synthetase 7 -   SEQ ID NO 95—open reading frame encoding N. benthamiana     phospholipase Dz1. -   SEQ ID NO 96—N. benthamiana phospholipase Dz1 -   SEQ ID NO 97—open reading frame encoding N. benthamiana     phospholipase Dz2. -   SEQ ID NO 98—N. benthamiana phospholipase Dz2 -   SEQ ID NO 99—open reading frame encoding N. benthamiana     lysophosphatidyl-choline acyltransferase 1 -   SEQ ID NO 100—N. benthamiana lysophosphatidyl-choline     acyltransferase 1 -   SEQ ID NO:101—nucleotide sequence encoding dsRNA hairpin     targeting N. benthamiana long-chain acyl CoA synthetase 4 -   SEQ ID NO:102—nucleotide sequence encoding dsRNA hairpin     targeting N. benthamiana long-chain acyl CoA synthetase 7 -   SEQ ID NO:103—nucleotide sequence encoding dsRNA hairpin     targeting N. benthamiana phospholipase Dz1 -   SEQ ID NO:104—nucleotide sequence encoding dsRNA hairpin     targeting N. benthamiana phospholipase Dz2 -   SEQ ID NO:105—nucleotide sequence encoding dsRNA hairpin     targeting N. benthamiana lysophosphatidyl-choline acyltransferase 1

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

General Techniques and Definitions

Unless specifically defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein shall be taken to have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art (e.g., in cell culture, molecular genetics, immunology, immunohistochemistry, protein chemistry, and biochemistry).

Unless otherwise indicated, the recombinant protein, cell culture, and immunological techniques utilized in the present invention are standard procedures, well known to those skilled in the art. Such techniques are described and explained throughout the literature in sources such as, J. Perbal, A Practical Guide to Molecular Cloning, John Wiley and Sons (1984), J. Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory Press (1989), T. A. Brown (editor), Essential Molecular Biology: A Practical Approach, Volumes 1 and 2, IRL Press (1991), D. M. Glover and B. D. Hames (editors), DNA Cloning: A Practical Approach, Volumes 1-4, IRL Press (1995 and 1996), and F. M. Ausubel et al. (editors), Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Greene Pub. Associates and Wiley-Interscience (1988, including all updates until present), Ed Harlow and David Lane (editors) Antibodies: A Laboratory Manual, Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, (1988), and J. E. Coligan et al. (editors) Current Protocols in Immunology, John Wiley & Sons (including all updates until present).

The term “and/or”, e.g., “X and/or Y” shall be understood to mean either “X and Y” or “X or Y” and shall be taken to provide explicit support for both meanings or for either meaning.

As used herein, the term about, unless stated to the contrary, refers to +/−20%, more preferably +/−10%, more preferably +/−5%, more preferably +/−2%, more preferably +/−1%, of the designated value.

Throughout this specification the word “comprise”, or variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps.

The term “exogenous” in the context of a polynucleotide or polypeptide refers to the polynucleotide or polypeptide when present in a cell in an altered amount compared to its native state. In one embodiment, the cell is a cell that does not naturally comprise the polynucleotide or polypeptide. In another embodiment, the exogenous polynucleotide or polypeptide is from a different genus. In another embodiment, the exogenous polynucleotide or polypeptide is from a different species. In one embodiment the exogenous polynucleotide or polypeptide is expressed in a host organism or cell and the exogenous polynucleotide or polypeptide is from a different species or genus.

The term “corresponding” refers to a cell, or plant or part thereof that has the same or similar genetic background as a cell, or plant or part thereof of the invention but that has not been modified as described herein (for example, the cell, or plant or part thereof lacks an exogenous polynucleotide encoding a CPFAS). A corresponding cell or, plant or part thereof can be used as a control to compare, for example, the amount of DHS and/or derivative thereof produced with a cell, or plant or part thereof modified as described herein. A person skilled in the art is able to readily determine an appropriate “corresponding” cell, plant or part thereof for such a comparison.

As used herein, the term “seedoil” refers to a composition obtained from the seed/grain of a plant which comprises at least 60% (w/w) lipid, or obtainable from the seed/grain if the seedoil is still present in the seed/grain. That is, seedoil of, or obtained using, the invention includes seedoil which is present in the seed/grain or portion thereof, as well as seedoil which has been extracted from the seed/grain. The seedoil is preferably extracted seedoil. Seedoil is typically a liquid at room temperature. Preferably, the total fatty acid (TFA) content in the seedoil predominantly (>50%) comprises fatty acids that are at least 16 carbons in length. More preferably, at least 50% of the total fatty acids in the seedoil are C18 fatty acids. The fatty acids are typically in an esterified form such as for example, TAG, DAG, acyl-CoA or phospholipid. Unless otherwise stated, the fatty acids may be free fatty acids and/or in an esterified form. In an embodiment, at least 50%, more preferably at least 70%, more preferably at least 80%, more preferably at least 90%, more preferably at least 91%, more preferably at least 92%, more preferably at least 93%, more preferably at least 94%, more preferably at least 95%, more preferably at least 96%, more preferably at least 97%, more preferably at least 98%, more preferably at least 99% of the fatty acids in seedoil of the invention can be found as TAG. In an embodiment, seedoil of the invention is “substantially purified” or “purified” oil that has been separated from one or more other lipids, nucleic acids, polypeptides, or other contaminating molecules with which it is associated in the seed or in a crude extract. It is preferred that the substantially purified seedoil is at least 60% free, more preferably at least 75% free, and more preferably, at least 90% free from other components with which it is associated in the seed or extract. Seedoil of the invention may further comprise non-fatty acid molecules such as, but not limited to, sterols. In an embodiment, the seedoil is canola oil (Brassica napus, Brassica rapa ssp.), mustard oil (Brassica juncea), other Brassica oil (e.g., Brassica napobrassica, Brassica camelina), sunflower oil (Helianthus annus), linseed oil (Linum usitatissimum), soybean oil (Glycine max), safflower oil (Carthamus tinctorius), corn oil (Zea mays), tobacco oil (Nicotiana tabacum), peanut oil (Arachis hypogaea), palm oil (Elaeis guineensis), cottonseed oil (Gossypium hirsutum), coconut oil (Cocos nucifera), avocado oil (Persea americana), olive oil (Olea europaea), cashew oil (Anacardium occidentale), macadamia oil (Macadamia intergrifolia), almond oil (Prunus amygdalus), oat seed oil (Avena sativa), rice oil (Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima), or Arabidopsis seed oil (Arabidopsis thaliana). Seedoil may be extracted from seed/grain by any method known in the art. This typically involves extraction with nonpolar solvents such as diethyl ether, petroleum ether, chloroform/methanol or butanol mixtures, generally associated with first crushing of the seeds. Lipids associated with the starch in the grain may be extracted with water-saturated butanol. The seedoil may be “de-gummed” by methods known in the art to remove polysaccharides or treated in other ways to remove contaminants or improve purity, stability, or colour. The TAGs and other esters in the seedoil may be hydrolysed to release free fatty acids, or the seedoil hydrogenated, treated chemically, or enzymatically as known in the art.

As used herein, the term “fatty acid” refers to a carboxylic acid with a long aliphatic tail typically of at least 18 carbon atoms in length. Most naturally occurring fatty acids have an even number of carbon atoms because their biosynthesis involves acetate which has two carbon atoms. The fatty acids may be in a free state (non-esterified) or in an esterified form, such as part of a TAG, DAG, MAG, acyl-CoA (thio-ester) bound, or other covalently bound form. When covalently bound in an esterified form, the fatty acid is referred to herein as an “acyl” group. The fatty acid may be esterified as a phospholipid such as a phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, or diphosphatidylglycerol. Saturated fatty acids do not contain any double bonds or other functional groups along the chain. The term “saturated” refers to hydrogen, in that all carbons (apart from the carboxylic acid [—COOH] group) contain as many hydrogens as possible. In other words, the omega (ω) end contains 3 hydrogens (CH3-) and each carbon within the chain contains 2 hydrogens (—CH2-). Unsaturated fatty acids are of similar form to saturated fatty acids, except that one or more alkene functional groups exist along the chain, with each alkene substituting a singly-bonded “—CH2-CH2-” part of the chain with a doubly-bonded “—CH═CH-” portion (that is, a carbon double bonded to another carbon). The two next carbon atoms in the chain that are bound to either side of the double bond can occur in a cis or trans configuration.

“Monoacylglyceride” or “MAG” is glyceride in which the glycerol is esterified with one fatty acid. As used herein, MAG comprises a hydroxyl group at an sn-1/3 (also referred to herein as sn-1 MAG or 1-MAG or 1/3-MAG) or sn-2 position (also referred to herein as 2-MAG), and therefore MAG does not include phosphorylated molecules such as PA or PC. MAG is thus a component of neutral lipids in a cell.

“Diacylglyceride” or “DAG” is glyceride in which the glycerol is esterified with two fatty acids. As used herein, DAG comprises a hydroxyl group at a sn-1,3 or sn-1,2/2,3 position, and therefore DAG does not include phosphorylated molecules such as PA or PC. DAG is thus a component of neutral lipids in a cell. In the Kennedy pathway of DAG synthesis, the precursor sn-glycerol-3-phosphate (G-3-P) is esterified to two acyl groups, each coming from a fatty acid coenzyme A ester, in a first reaction catalysed by a glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (GPAT) at position sn-1 to form LysoPA, followed by a second acylation at position sn-2 catalysed by a lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase (LPAAT) to form phosphatidic acid (PA). This intermediate is then de-phosphorylated to form DAG. In an alternative anabolic pathway, DAG may be formed by the acylation of either sn-1 MAG or preferably sn-2 MAG, catalysed by MGAT. DAG may also be formed from TAG by removal of an acyl group by a lipase, or from PC essentially by removal of a choline headgroup by any of the enzymes CPT, PDCT or PLC.

“Triacylglyceride” or “TAG” is glyceride in which the glycerol is esterified with three fatty acids. In the Kennedy pathway of TAG synthesis, DAG is formed as described above, and then a third acyl group is esterified to the glycerol backbone by the activity of DGAT. Alternative pathways for formation of TAG include one catalysed by the enzyme PDAT and the MGAT pathway (WO 2012/000026).

As used herein, the term “acyltransferase” refers to a protein which is capable of transferring an acyl group from acyl-CoA onto a substrate and includes MGATs, GPATs and DGATs.

As used herein, the term “monoacylglycerol acyltransferase” or “MGAT” refers to a protein which transfers a fatty acyl group from acyl-CoA to a MAG substrate to produce DAG. Thus, the term “monoacylglycerol acyltransferase activity” at least refers to the transfer of an acyl group from acyl-CoA to MAG to produce DAG. MGAT is best known for its role in fat absorption in the intestine of mammals, where the fatty acids and sn-2 MAG generated from the digestion of dietary fat are resynthesized into TAG in enterocytes for chylomicron synthesis and secretion. MGAT catalyzes the first step of this process, in which the acyl group from fatty acyl-CoA, formed from fatty acids and CoA, and sn-2 MAG are covalently joined. The term “MGAT” as used herein includes enzymes that act on sn-1/3 MAG and/or sn-2 MAG substrates to form sn-1,3 DAG and/or sn-1,2/2,3-DAG, respectively. In a preferred embodiment, the MGAT has a preference for sn-2 MAG substrate relative to sn-1 MAG, or substantially uses only sn-2 MAG as substrate (examples include MGATs described in Cao et al., 2003 (specificity of mouse MGAT1 for sn2-18:1-MAG>sn1/3-18:1-MAG); Yen and Farese, 2003 (general activities of mouse MGAT1 and human MGAT2 are higher on 2-MAG than on 1-MAG acyl-acceptor substrates; and Cheng et al., 2003 (activity of human MGAT3 on 2-MAGs is much higher than on 1/3-MAG substrates).

As used herein, MGAT does not include enzymes which transfer an acyl group preferentially to LysoPA relative to MAG, such enzymes are known as LPAATs. That is, a MGAT preferentially uses non-phosphorylated monoacyl substrates, even though they may have low catalytic activity on LysoPA. A preferred MGAT does not have detectable activity in acylating LysoPA. As shown herein, a MGAT (i.e., M. musculus MGAT2) may also have DGAT function but predominantly functions as a MGAT, i.e., it has greater catalytic activity as a MGAT than as a DGAT when the enzyme activity is expressed in units of nmoles product/min/mg protein (also see Yen et al., 2002).

There are three known classes of MGAT, referred to as, MGAT1, MGAT2 and MGAT3, respectively. Homologs of the human MGAT1 gene (AF384163) are present (i.e. sequences are known) at least in chimpanzee, dog, cow, mouse, rat, zebrafish, Caenorhabditis elegans, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Kluyveromyces lactis, Eremothecium gossypii, Magnaporthe grisea, and Neurospora crassa. Homologs of the human MGAT2 gene (AY157608) are present at least in chimpanzee, dog, cow, mouse, rat, chicken, zebrafish, fruit fly, and mosquito. Homologs of the human MGAT3 gene (AY229854) are present at least in chimpanzee, dog, cow, and zebrafish. However, homologs from other organisms can be readily identified by methods known in the art for identifying homologous sequences.

Examples of MGAT1 polypeptides include proteins encoded by MGAT1 genes from Homo sapiens (AF384163), Mus musculus (AF384162), Pan troglodytes (XM_001166055, XM_0526044.2), Canis familiaris (XM_545667.2), Bos taurus (NM_001001153.2), Rattus norvegicus (NM_001108803.1), Danio rerio MGAT1 (NM_001122623.1), Caenorhabditis elegans (NM_073012.4, NM_182380.5, NM_065258.3, NM_075068.3, NM_072248.3), Kluyveromyces lactis (XM_455588.1), Ashbya gossypii (NM_208895.1), Magnaporthe oryzae (XM_368741.1), Ciona intestinalis predicted (XM_002120843.1). Examples of MGAT2 polypeptides include proteins encoded by MGAT2 genes from Homo sapiens (AY157608), Mus musculus (AY157609), Pan troglodytes (XM_522112.2), Canis familiaris (XM_542304.1), Bos taurus (NM_001099136.1), Rattus norvegicus, Gallus gallus (XM_424082.2), Danio rerio (NM_001006083.1), Drosophila melanogaster (NM_136474.2, NM_136473.2, NM_136475.2), Anopheles gambiae (XM_001688709.1, XM_315985), Tribolium castaneum (XM_970053.1). Examples of MGAT3 polypeptides include proteins encoded by MGAT3 genes from Homo sapiens (AY229854), Pan troglodytes (XM_001154107.1, XM_001154171.1, XM_527842.2), Canis familiaris (XM_845212.1), Bos taurus (XM_870406.4), Danio rerio (XM_688413.4).

As used herein “MGAT pathway” refers to an anabolic pathway, different to the Kennedy pathway for the formation of TAG, in which DAG is formed by the acylation of either sn-1 MAG or preferably sn-2 MAG, catalysed by MGAT. The DAG may subsequently be used to form TAG or other lipids

As used herein, the term “diacylglycerol acyltransferase” (DGAT) refers to a protein which transfers a fatty acyl group from acyl-CoA to a DAG substrate to produce TAG. Thus, the term “diacylglycerol acyltransferase activity” refers to the transfer of an acyl group from acyl-CoA to DAG to produce TAG. A DGAT may also have MGAT function but predominantly functions as a DGAT, i.e., it has greater catalytic activity as a DGAT than as a MGAT when the enzyme activity is expressed in units of nmoles product/min/mg protein (see for example, Yen et al., 2005).

There are three known types of DGAT, referred to as DGAT1, DGAT2 and DGAT3, respectively. DGAT1 polypeptides typically have 10 transmembrane domains, DGAT2 polypeptides typically have 2 transmembrane domains, whilst DGAT3 polypeptides typically have none and are thought to be soluble in the cytoplasm, not integrated into membranes. Examples of DGAT1 polypeptides include proteins encoded by DGAT1 genes from Aspergillus fumigatus (Accession No. XP_755172), Arabidopsis thaliana (CAB44774), Ricinus communis (AAR11479), Vernicia fordii (ABC94472), Vernonia galamensis (ABV21945, ABV21946), Euonymus alatus (AAV31083), Caenorhabditis elegans (AAF82410), Rattus norvegicus (NP_445889), Homo sapiens (NP_036211), as well as variants and/or mutants thereof. Examples of DGAT2 polypeptides include proteins encoded by DGAT2 genes from Arabidopsis thaliana (NP_566952.1), Ricinus communis (AAY16324.1), Vernicia fordii (ABC94474.1), Mortierella ramanniana (AAK84179.1), Homo sapiens (Q96PD7.2, Q58HT5.1), Bos taurus (Q7OVZ8.1), Mus musculus (AAK84175.1), as well as variants and/or mutants thereof.

Examples of DGAT3 polypeptides include proteins encoded by DGAT3 genes from peanut (Arachis hypogaea, Saha, et al., 2006), as well as variants and/or mutants thereof. A DGAT has little or no detectable MGAT activity, for example, less than 300 pmol/min/mg protein, preferably less than 200 pmol/min/mg protein, more preferably 100 pmol/min/mg protein.

DGAT2 but not DGAT1 shares high sequence homology with the MGAT enzymes, suggesting that DGAT2 and MGAT genes likely share a common genetic origin. Although multiple isoforms are involved in catalysing the same step in TAG synthesis, they may play distinct functional roles, as suggested by differential tissue distribution and subcellular localization of the DGAT/MGAT family of enzymes. In mammals, MGAT1 is mainly expressed in stomach, kidney, adipose tissue, whilst MGAT2 and MGAT3 show highest expression in the small intestine. In mammals, DGAT1 is ubiquitously expressed in many tissues, with highest expression in small intestine, whilst DGAT2 is most abundant in liver. MGAT3 only exists in higher mammals and humans, but not in rodents from bioinformatic analysis. MGAT3 shares higher sequence homology to DGAT2 than MGAT1 and MGAT3. MGAT3 exhibits significantly higher DGAT activity than MGAT1 and MGAT2 enzymes (MGAT3>MGAT1>MGAT2) when either MAGs or DAGs were used as substrates, suggesting MGAT3 functions as a putative TAG synthase.

Both MGAT1 and MGAT2 belong to the same class of acyltransferases as DGAT2. Some of the motifs that have been shown to be important for DGAT2 catalytic activity in some DGAT2s are also conserved in MGAT acyltransferases. Of particular interest is a putative neutral lipid-binding domain with the concensus sequence FLXLXXXN (SEQ ID NO: 88) where each X is independently any amino acid other than proline, and N is any nonpolar amino acid, located within the N-terminal transmembrane region followed by a putative glycerol/phospholipid acyltransferase domain. The FLXLXXXN motif is found in the mouse DGAT2 (amino acids 81-88) and MGAT1/2 but not in yeast or plant DGAT2s. It is important for activity of the mouse DGAT2. Other DGAT2 and/or MGAT1/2 sequence motifs include:

1. A highly conserved YFP tripeptide in most DGAT2 polypeptides and also in MGAT1 and MGAT2, for example, present as amino acids 139-141 in mouse DGAT2. Mutating this motif within the yeast DGAT2 with non-conservative substitutions rendered the enzyme non-functional.

2. HPHG tetrapeptide (SEQ ID NO: 89), highly conserved in MGATs as well as in DGAT2 sequences from animals and fungi, for example, present as amino acids 161-164 in mouse DGAT2, and important for catalytic activity at least in yeast and mouse DGAT2. Plant DGAT2 acyltransferases have a EPHS conserved sequence instead, so conservative changes to the first and fourth amino acids can be tolerated.

3. A longer conserved motif which is part of the putative glycerol phospholipid domain. An example of this motif is RXGFX(K/R)XAXXXGXXX(L/V)VPXXXFG(E/Q) (SEQ ID NO:90), which is present as amino acids 304-327 in mouse DGAT2. This motif is less conserved in amino acid sequence than the others, as would be expected from its length, but homologs can be recognised by motif searching. The spacing may vary between the more conserved amino acids, i.e., there may be additional X amino acids within the motif, or less X amino acids compared to the sequence above.

As used herein, the term “Oleosin” refers to an amphipathic protein present in the membrane of oil bodies in the storage tissues of seeds (see, for example, Huang, 1996; Lin et al., 2005; Capuano et al., 2007; Liu et al., 2009; Shimada and Hara-Nishimura, 2010). This term encompasses caleosins which bind calcium, and steroleosins which bind sterols. However, generally a large proportion of the oleosins of oil bodies will not be caleosins and/or steroleosins. Plant seeds accumulate TAG in subcellular structures called oil bodies. These organelles consist of a TAG core surround by a phospholipid monolayer containing several embedded proteins including oleosins, caleosins and steroleosins (Jolivet et al., 2004). Oleosins represent the most abundant protein in the membrane of oil bodies.

Oleosins are of low M_(r) (15-26,000). Within each seed species, there are usually two or more oleosins of different M_(r). Each oleosin molecule contains a relatively hydrophilic N-terminal domain (for example, about 48 amino acid residues), a central totally hydrophobic domain (for example, of about 70-80 amino acid residues) which is particularly rich in aliphatic amino acids such as alanine, glycine, leucine, isoleucine and valine, and an amphipathic α-helical domain (for example, of about 33 amino acid residues) at or near the C-terminus. Generally, the central stretch of the hydrophobic residues is inserted into the lipid core and the amphiphatic N-terminal and/or amphiphatic C-terminal are located at the surface of the oil bodies, with positively charged residues embedded in a phospholipid monolayer and the negatively charged ones exposed to the exterior. A substantial number of oleosin protein sequences, and nucleotide sequences encoding therefor, are known from a large number of different plant species. Examples include, but are not limited to, oleosins from Arabidposis, canola, corn, rice, peanut, castor, soybean, flax, grape, cabbage, cotton, sunflower, sorghum and barley.

As used herein, the term “desaturase” refers to an enzyme which is capable of introducing a carbon-carbon double bond into the acyl group of a fatty acid substrate which is typically in an esterified form such as, for example, fatty acid CoA esters. The acyl group may be esterified to a phospholipid such as phosphatidylcholine (PC), or to acyl carrier protein (ACP), or in a preferred embodiment to CoA. Desaturases generally may be categorized into three groups accordingly. In one embodiment, the desaturase is a front-end desaturase.

As used herein, the term “Δ12 desaturase” refers to a protein which performs a desaturase reaction converting oleic acid to linoleic acid. Thus, the term “Δ12 desaturase activity” refers to the conversion of oleic acid to linoleic acid. These fatty acids may be in an esterified form, such as, for example, as part of a phospholipid.

As used herein, the term “palmitoyl-ACP thioesterase” refers to a protein which hydrolyses palmitoyl-ACP to produce free palmitic acid. Thus, the term “palmitoyl-ACP thioesterase activity” refers to the hydrolysis of palmitoyl-ACP to produce free palmitic acid. An example of a palmitoyl-ACP thioesterase is FatB.

As used herein, the term “lipid handling enzyme” refers to a protein involved in the biosynthesis or metabolism to TAG. Considering the present application relates to the production of DHS, the skilled person can readily test candidate lipid handling enzymes to ensure they are useful for the invention. Examples of lipid handling enzymes include, but are not limited to, fatty acid acyltransferase such as an lysophosphatidyl-choline acyltransferase (LPCAT), a lipase such as a phospholipase D, or a fatty acid synthetase such as a long-chain acyl CoA synthetase (LACS). Such types of enzymes are well known in the art.

As used herein, the term “acyl-CoA: lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase” (EC 2.3.1.23; LPCAT) refers to a protein which reversibly catalyzes the acyl-CoA-dependent acylation of lysophophatidylcholine to produce phosphatidylcholine and CoA. Thus, the term “acyl-CoA:lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase activity” refers to the reversible acylation of lysophophatidylcholine to produce phosphatidylcholine and CoA.

As used herein, the term “phospholipase D” (PLD) refers to a protein which hydrolyzes phosphatidylcholine to produce phosphatidic acid and a choline headgroup. Thus, the term “phospholipase D activity” refers to the hydrolysis of phosphatidylcholine to produce phosphatidic acid and a choline headgroup.

As used herein, the term “long-chain acyl CoA synthetase” (LACS) refers to a ligase family that activates the breakdown of complex fatty acids. LACS plays a crucial role in intermediary metabolism by catalyzing the formation of fatty acyl-CoA by a two-step process proceeding through an adenylated intermediate. It catalyzes the pre-step reaction for β-oxidation of fatty acids or can be incorporated in phospholipids.

As used herein, the term “Wrinkled 1” or “WRI1” or “WRL1” refers to a transcription factor of the AP2/ERWEBP class which regulates the expression of several enzymes involved in glycolysis and de novo fatty acid biosynthesis. WRI1 has two plant-specific (AP2/EREB) DNA-binding domains. WRI1 in at least Arabidopsis also regulates the breakdown of sucrose via glycolysis thereby regulating the supply of precursors for fatty acid biosynthesis. In other words, it controls the carbon flow from the photosynthate to storage lipids. wri1 mutants have wrinkled seed phenotype, due to a defect in the incorporation of sucrose and glucose into TAGs.

Examples of genes which are transcribed by WRI1 include, but are not limited to, one or more, preferably all, of pyruvate kinase (At5g52920, At3g22960), pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) Elalpha subunit (At1g01090), acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase), BCCP2 subunit (At5g15530), enoyl-ACP reductase (At2g05990; EAR), phosphoglycerate mutase (At1g22170), cytosolic fructokinase, and cytosolic phosphoglycerate mutase, sucrose synthase (SuSy) (see, for example, Liu et al., 2010b; Baud et al., 2007; Ruuska et al., 2002).

As used herein, the term “Leafy Cotyledon 2” or “LEC2” refers to a B3 domain transcription factor which participates in zygotic and in somatic embryogenesis. Its ectopic expression facilitates the embryogenesis from vegetative plant tissues (Alemanno et al., 2008). LEC2 also comprises a DNA binding region found thus far only in plant proteins. Examples of LEC2 polypeptides include proteins from Arabidopsis thaliana (NP_564304.1), Medicago truncatula (CAA42938.1) and Brassica napus (AD016343.1).

As used herein, the term “BABY BOOM” or “BBM” refers an AP2/ERF transcription factor that induces regeneration under culture conditions that normally do not support regeneration in wild-type plants. Ectopic expression of Brassica napus BBM (BnBBM) genes in B. napus and Arabidopsis induces spontaneous somatic embryogenesis and organogenesis from seedlings grown on hormone-free basal medium (Boutilier et al., 2002). In tobacco, ectopic BBM expression is sufficient to induce adventitious shoot and root regeneration on basal medium, but exogenous cytokinin is required for somatic embryo (SE) formation (Srinivasan et al., 2007). Examples of BBM polypeptides include proteins from Arabidopsis thaliana (NP_197245.2) and Medicago truncatula (AAW82334.1).

Dihydrosterculic Acid (DHS)

The production of DHS from oleic acid is shown in FIG. 5. This reaction can be achieved by the use of a cyclopropane fatty acid synthetase.

The term “cyclopropane fatty acid synthetase” (CPFAS), “cyclopropane synthase” or variants thereof refers to a polypeptide with the capacity to synthesize a fatty acid containing a cyclopropane ring. The basic reaction involves the addition of a methylene group across a double bond of a fatty acid. Thus, the polypeptide catalyzes the addition of a methylene group across the unsaturated center of an unsaturated fatty acid, and includes the addition of a methylene group across a double bond of an acyl group. The fatty acyl group may be esterified to a phospholipid; such phospholipid substrates include phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, and phosphatidylglycerol. A “plant CPFAS” is an enzyme originally obtained from a plant source; the enzyme may be modified where such modifications include but are not limited to truncation, amino acid deletions, additions, substitutions, and glycosylation, and where the resulting modified enzyme possesses CPFAS activity. In a particularly preferred embodiment, a modified plant CPFAS is truncated at the N-terminal end when compared to a naturally occurring enzyme.

At least some DHS may be converted in the cell to a fatty acid derivative. Alternatively, or in addition, the DHS may be converted to a fatty acid derivative following/during extraction from the cell, oilseed or vegetative plant tissue.

Preferably, the fatty acid derivative comprises a cyclo-propyl group (3-membered ring) or is a branched chain fatty acid having a methyl group as the branch.

In one embodiment, the derivative comprises 2, 4 or 6 more carbons in the acyl chain when compared to DHS, such as eDHS described in Example 6.

In another embodiment, the cyclo-propyl group or a methyl group is a mid-chain group such as isostearic acid with the methyl group attached to C9 or C10.

Some DHA fatty acid derivatives, such as sterculic acid and/or malvalic acid, have undesirable characteristics. Thus, in an embodiment, the oilseed, vegetative plant tissue or cells comprise less than about 10%, or less than about 5%, or less than about 3%, less than about 1%, or less than about 0.5% sterculic acid and/or malvalic acid, preferably the sum of the sterculic and malvalic acids is less than 0.5% of the total fatty acids in the extractable oil of the oilseed, vegetative plant tissue or cells. When using cells which naturally produce sterculic acid and/or malvalic acid, such as cotton cells, the levels of these derivatives can be reduced by downregulating the production of the enzymes directly or indirectly involved in the conversion DHS to these derivatives such as DHS Δ9 desaturase using, for example, RNA silencing.

A particularly useful DHA fatty acid derivative is isostearic acid (ISA) with a methyl group attached to C9 or C10 which has a rare combination of high oxidative stability and low melting point thus imparting valuable properties to industrial oils including increased lubricity, stability and the preferred melting properties that make it useful for cosmetic uses (WO 99/18217). DHS produced using a method of the invention can readily be converted to ISA using techniques known in the art such as hydrogenation.

Hydrogenation of an unsaturated fatty acid such as DHS refers to the addition of hydrogen atoms to the acid, causing cyclo-groups to become single ones, as carbon atoms acquire new hydrogen partners. Full hydrogenation results in a molecule containing the maximum amount of hydrogen (in other words, the conversion of an unsaturated fatty acid into a saturated one). Partial hydrogenation results in the addition of hydrogen atoms at some of the empty positions, with a corresponding reduction in the number of cyclo-groups. Examples of procedures of hydrogenation are described in Kai (1982), U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,210 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,201,431.

Polypeptides

The terms “polypeptide” and “protein” are generally used interchangeably.

A polypeptide or class of polypeptides may be defined by the extent of identity (% identity) of its amino acid sequence to a reference amino acid sequence, or by having a greater % identity to one reference amino acid sequence than to another. The % identity of a polypeptide to a reference amino acid sequence is typically determined by GAP analysis (Needleman and Wunsch, 1970; GCG program) with parameters of a gap creation penalty=5, and a gap extension penalty=0.3. The query sequence is at least 100 amino acids in length and the GAP analysis aligns the two sequences over a region of at least 100 amino acids. Even more preferably, the query sequence is at least 250 amino acids in length and the GAP analysis aligns the two sequences over a region of at least 250 amino acids. Even more preferably, the GAP analysis aligns two sequences over their entire length. The polypeptide or class of polypeptides may have the same enzymatic activity as, or a different activity than, or lack the activity of, the reference polypeptide. Preferably, the polypeptide has an enzymatic activity of at least 10% of the activity of the reference polypeptide.

As used herein a “biologically active fragment” is a portion of a polypeptide of the invention which maintains a defined activity of a full-length reference polypeptide for example, CPFAS activity. Biologically active fragments as used herein exclude the full-length polypeptide. Biologically active fragments can be any size portion as long as they maintain the defined activity. Preferably, the biologically active fragment maintains at least 10% of the activity of the full length polypeptide.

With regard to a defined polypeptide or enzyme, it will be appreciated that % identity figures higher than those provided herein will encompass preferred embodiments. Thus, where applicable, in light of the minimum % identity figures, it is preferred that the polypeptide/enzyme comprises an amino acid sequence which is at least 40%, more preferably at least 50%, more preferably at least 60%, more preferably at least 65%, more preferably at least 70%, more preferably at least 75%, more preferably at least 80%, more preferably at least 85%, more preferably at least 90%, more preferably at least 91%, more preferably at least 92%, more preferably at least 93%, more preferably at least 94%, more preferably at least 95%, more preferably at least 96%, more preferably at least 97%, more preferably at least 98%, more preferably at least 99%, more preferably at least 99.1%, more preferably at least 99.2%, more preferably at least 99.3%, more preferably at least 99.4%, more preferably at least 99.5%, more preferably at least 99.6%, more preferably at least 99.7%, more preferably at least 99.8%, and even more preferably at least 99.9% identical to the relevant nominated SEQ ID NO.

Amino acid sequence mutants of the polypeptides defined herein can be prepared by introducing appropriate nucleotide changes into a nucleic acid defined herein, or by in vitro synthesis of the desired polypeptide. Such mutants include for example, deletions, insertions, or substitutions of residues within the amino acid sequence. A combination of deletions, insertions and substitutions can be made to arrive at the final construct, provided that the final polypeptide product possesses the desired characteristics.

Mutant (altered) polypeptides can be prepared using any technique known in the art, for example, using directed evolution or rationale design strategies (see below). Products derived from mutated/altered DNA can readily be screened using techniques described herein to determine if they possess CPFAS activity.

In designing amino acid sequence mutants, the location of the mutation site and the nature of the mutation will depend on characteristic(s) to be modified. The sites for mutation can be modified individually or in series for example, by (1) substituting first with conservative amino acid choices and then with more radical selections depending upon the results achieved, (2) deleting the target residue, or (3) inserting other residues adjacent to the located site.

Amino acid sequence deletions generally range from about 1 to 15 residues, more preferably about 1 to 10 residues and typically about 1 to 5 contiguous residues.

Substitution mutants have at least one amino acid residue in the polypeptide removed and a different residue inserted in its place. The sites of greatest interest for substitutional mutagenesis include sites identified as the active site(s). Other sites of interest are those in which particular residues obtained from various strains or species are identical. These positions may be important for biological activity. These sites, especially those falling within a sequence of at least three other identically conserved sites, are preferably substituted in a relatively conservative manner. Such conservative substitutions are shown in Table 1 under the heading of “exemplary substitutions”.

In a preferred embodiment a mutant/variant polypeptide has only, or not more than, one or two or three or four conservative amino acid changes when compared to a naturally occurring polypeptide. Details of conservative amino acid changes are provided in Table 1. As the skilled person would be aware, such minor changes can reasonably be predicted not to alter the activity of the polypeptide when expressed in a recombinant cell.

TABLE 1 Exemplary substitutions. Original Exemplary Residue Substitutions Ala (A) val; leu; ile; gly Arg (R) lys Asn (N) gln; his Asp (D) glu Cys (C) ser Gln (Q) asn; his Glu (E) asp Gly (G) pro, ala His (H) asn; gln Ile (I) leu; val; ala Leu (L) ile; val; met; ala; phe Lys (K) arg Met (M) leu; phe Phe (F) leu; val; ala Pro (P) gly Ser (S) thr Thr (T) ser Trp (W) tyr Tyr (Y) trp; phe Val (V) ile; leu; met; phe, ala Directed Evolution

In directed evolution, random mutagenesis is applied to a protein, and a selection regime is used to pick out variants that have the desired qualities, for example, increased CPFAS activity. Further rounds of mutation and selection are then applied. A typical directed evolution strategy involves three steps:

1) Diversification: The gene encoding the protein of interest is mutated and/or recombined at random to create a large library of gene variants. Variant gene libraries can be constructed through error prone PCR (see, for example, Cadwell and Joyce, 1992), from pools of DNaseI digested fragments prepared from parental templates (Stemmer, 1994a; Stemmer, 1994b; Crameri et al., 1998; Coco et al., 2001) from degenerate oligonucleotides (Ness et al., 2002, Coco, 2002) or from mixtures of both, or even from undigested parental templates (Zhao et al., 1998; Eggert et al., 2005; Jézéquek et al., 2008) and are usually assembled through PCR. Libraries can also be made from parental sequences recombined in vivo or in vitro by either homologous or non-homologous recombination (Ostermeier et al., 1999; Volkov et al., 1999; Sieber et al., 2001). Variant gene libraries can also be constructed by sub-cloning a gene of interest into a suitable vector, transforming the vector into a “mutator” strain such as the E. coli XL-1 red (Stratagene) and propagating the transformed bacteria for a suitable number of generations. Variant gene libraries can also be constructed by subjecting the gene of interest to DNA shuffling (i.e., in vitro homologous recombination of pools of selected mutant genes by random fragmentation and reassembly) as broadly described by Harayama (1998).

2) Selection: The library is tested for the presence of mutants (variants) possessing the desired property using a screen or selection. Screens enable the identification and isolation of high-performing mutants by hand, while selections automatically eliminate all nonfunctional mutants. A screen may involve screening for the presence of known conserved amino acid motifs. Alternatively, or in addition, a screen may involve expressing the mutated polynucleotide in a host organism or part thereof and assaying the level of CPFAS activity by, for example, quantifying the level of resultant product in lipid extracted from the organism or part thereof, and determining the level of product in the extracted lipid from the organism or part thereof relative to a corresponding organism or part thereof lacking the mutated polynucleotide and optionally, expressing the parent (unmutated) polynucleotide. Alternatively, the screen may involve feeding the organism or part thereof labelled substrate and determining the level of substrate or product in the organism or part thereof relative to a corresponding organism or part thereof lacking the mutated polynucleotide and optionally, expressing the parent (unmutated) polynucleotide.

3) Amplification: The variants identified in the selection or screen are replicated many fold, enabling researchers to sequence their DNA in order to understand what mutations have occurred.

Together, these three steps are termed a “round” of directed evolution. Most experiments will entail more than one round. In these experiments, the “winners” of the previous round are diversified in the next round to create a new library. At the end of the experiment, all evolved protein or polynucleotide mutants are characterized using biochemical methods.

Rational Design

A protein can be designed rationally, on the basis of known information about protein structure and folding. This can be accomplished by design from scratch (de novo design) or by redesign based on native scaffolds (see, for example, Hallinga, 1997; and Lu and Berry, Protein Structure Design and Engineering, Handbook of Proteins 2, 1153-1157 (2007)). Protein design typically involves identifying sequences that fold into a given or target structure and can be accomplished using computer models. Computational protein design algorithms search the sequence-conformation space for sequences that are low in energy when folded to the target structure. Computational protein design algorithms use models of protein energetics to evaluate how mutations would affect a protein's structure and function. These energy functions typically include a combination of molecular mechanics, statistical (i.e. knowledge-based), and other empirical terms. Suitable available software includes IPRO (Interative Protein Redesign and Optimization), EGAD (A Genetic Algorithm for Protein Design), Rosetta Design, Sharpen, and Abalone.

Also included within the scope of the invention are polypeptides defined herein which are differentially modified during or after synthesis for example, by biotinylation, benzylation, glycosylation, acetylation, phosphorylation, amidation, derivatization by known protecting/blocking groups, proteolytic cleavage, linkage to an antibody molecule or other cellular ligand, etc. These modifications may serve to increase the stability and/or bioactivity of the polypeptide of the invention.

Polypeptides as described herein may be expressed as a fusion to at least one other polypeptide. In a preferred embodiment, the at least one other polypeptide is selected from the group consisting of: a polypeptide that enhances the stability of the fusion protein, and a polypeptide that assists in the purification of the fusion protein.

Polynucleotides

The terms “polynucleotide”, and “nucleic acid” are used interchangeably. They refer to a polymeric form of nucleotides of any length, either deoxyribonucleotides or ribonucleotides, or analogs thereof. A polynucleotide of the invention may be of genomic, cDNA, semisynthetic, or synthetic origin, double-stranded or single-stranded and by virtue of its origin or manipulation: (1) is not associated with all or a portion of a polynucleotide with which it is associated in nature, (2) is linked to a polynucleotide other than that to which it is linked in nature, or (3) does not occur in nature. The following are non-limiting examples of polynucleotides: coding or non-coding regions of a gene or gene fragment, loci (locus) defined from linkage analysis, exons, introns, messenger RNA (mRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA), ribosomal RNA (rRNA), ribozymes, cDNA, recombinant polynucleotides, branched polynucleotides, plasmids, vectors, isolated DNA of any sequence, isolated RNA of any sequence, chimeric DNA of any sequence, nucleic acid probes, and primers. A polynucleotide may comprise modified nucleotides such as methylated nucleotides and nucleotide analogs. If present, modifications to the nucleotide structure may be imparted before or after assembly of the polymer. The sequence of nucleotides may be interrupted by non-nucleotide components. A polynucleotide may be further modified after polymerization such as by conjugation with a labeling component.

As used herein, the term “gene” is to be taken in its broadest context and includes the deoxyribonucleotide sequences comprising the transcribed region and, if translated, the protein coding region, of a structural gene and including sequences located adjacent to the coding region on both the 5′ and 3′ ends for a distance of at least about 2 kb on either end and which are involved in expression of the gene. In this regard, the gene includes control signals such as promoters, enhancers, termination and/or polyadenylation signals that are naturally associated with a given gene, or heterologous control signals, in which case, the gene is referred to as a “chimeric gene”. The sequences which are located 5′ of the protein coding region and which are present on the mRNA are referred to as 5′ non-translated sequences. The sequences which are located 3′ or downstream of the protein coding region and which are present on the mRNA are referred to as 3′ non-translated sequences. The term “gene” encompasses both cDNA and genomic forms of a gene. A genomic form or clone of a gene contains the coding region which may be interrupted with non-coding sequences termed “introns”, “intervening regions”, or “intervening sequences.” Introns are segments of a gene which are transcribed into nuclear RNA (nRNA). Introns may contain regulatory elements such as enhancers. Introns are removed or “spliced out” from the nuclear or primary transcript; introns therefore are absent in the mRNA transcript. The mRNA functions during translation to specify the sequence or order of amino acids in a nascent polypeptide. The term “gene” includes a synthetic or fusion molecule encoding all or part of the proteins of the invention described herein and a complementary nucleotide sequence to any one of the above.

As used herein, “chimeric DNA” refers to any DNA molecule that is not naturally found in nature; also referred to herein as a “DNA construct”. Typically, chimeric DNA comprises regulatory and transcribed or protein coding sequences that are not naturally found together in nature. Accordingly, chimeric DNA may comprise regulatory sequences and coding sequences that are derived from different sources, or regulatory sequences and coding sequences derived from the same source, but arranged in a manner different than that found in nature. The open reading frame may or may not be linked to its natural upstream and downstream regulatory elements. The open reading frame may be incorporated into, for example, the plant genome, in a non-natural location, or in a replicon or vector where it is not naturally found such as a bacterial plasmid or a viral vector. The term “chimeric DNA” is not limited to DNA molecules which are replicable in a host, but includes DNA capable of being ligated into a replicon by, for example, specific adaptor sequences.

A “transgene” is a gene that has been introduced into the genome by a transformation procedure. The terms “genetically modified”, “transgenic” and variations thereof include introducing a gene into a cell by transformation or transduction, mutating a gene in a cell and genetically altering or modulating the regulation of a gene in a cell, or the progeny of any cell modified as described above.

A “genomic region” as used herein refers to a position within the genome where a transgene, or group of transgenes (also referred to herein as a cluster), have been inserted into a cell, or predecessor thereof. Such regions only comprise nucleotides that have been incorporated by the intervention of man such as by methods described herein.

A “recombinant polynucleotide” of the invention refers to a nucleic acid molecule which has been constructed or modified by artificial recombinant methods. The recombinant polynucleotide may be present in a cell in an altered amount or expressed at an altered rate (e.g., in the case of mRNA) compared to its native state. In one embodiment, the polynucleotide is introduced into a cell that does not naturally comprise the polynucleotide. Typically an exogenous DNA is used as a template for transcription of mRNA which is then translated into a continuous sequence of amino acid residues coding for a polypeptide of the invention within the transformed cell. In another embodiment, the polynucleotide is endogenous to the cell and its expression is altered by recombinant means, for example, an exogenous control sequence is introduced upstream of an endogenous gene of interest to enable the transformed cell to express the polypeptide encoded by the gene.

A recombinant polynucleotide of the invention includes polynucleotides which have not been separated from other components of the cell-based or cell-free expression system, in which it is present, and polynucleotides produced in said cell-based or cell-free systems which are subsequently purified away from at least some other components. The polynucleotide can be a contiguous stretch of nucleotides existing in nature, or comprise two or more contiguous stretches of nucleotides from different sources (naturally occurring and/or synthetic) joined to form a single polynucleotide. Typically, such chimeric polynucleotides comprise at least an open reading frame encoding a polypeptide of the invention operably linked to a promoter suitable of driving transcription of the open reading frame in a cell of interest.

In one embodiment, a cell of the invention comprises, a first exogenous polynucleotide encodes a truncated plant CPFAS or variant thereof, and a second exogenous polynucleotide encodes a bacterial or fungal CPFAS or variant thereof.

Examples of polynucleotides encoding truncated plant CPFAS enzymes or variant thereofs include, but are not limited to, those comprising

i) a sequence of nucleotides selected from any one of SEQ ID NOs: 37 to 43,

ii) a sequence of nucleotides which are at least 30% identical to one or more of the sequences set forth in SEQ ID NOs: 37 to 43, and/or

iii) a sequence which hybridises to i) and/or ii) under stringent conditions, preferably wherein the encoded CPFAS is no longer than about 600 amino acids, more preferably no longer than 500 amino acids, in length.

Examples of polynucleotides encoding bacterial or fungal CPFAS enzymes or variant thereofs include, but are not limited to, those comprising

i) a sequence of nucleotides selected from any one of SEQ ID NOs: 59 to 62,

ii) a sequence of nucleotides which are at least 30% identical to one or more of the sequences set forth in SEQ ID NOs: 59 to 62, and/or

iii) a sequence which hybridises to i) and/or ii) under stringent conditions.

If the cell is a plant cell, preferably the polynucleotide is optimized for plant expression using routine techniques such as those used to produce SEQ ID NO: 60.

With regard to the defined polynucleotides, it will be appreciated that % identity figures higher than those provided above will encompass preferred embodiments. Thus, where applicable, in light of the minimum % identity figures, it is preferred that the polynucleotide comprises a polynucleotide sequence which is at least 40%, more preferably at least 50%, more preferably at least 60%, more preferably at least 65%, more preferably at least 70%, more preferably at least 75%, more preferably at least 80%, more preferably at least 85%, more preferably at least 90%, more preferably at least 91%, more preferably at least 92%, more preferably at least 93%, more preferably at least 94%, more preferably at least 95%, more preferably at least 96%, more preferably at least 97%, more preferably at least 98%, more preferably at least 99%, more preferably at least 99.1%, more preferably at least 99.2%, more preferably at least 99.3%, more preferably at least 99.4%, more preferably at least 99.5%, more preferably at least 99.6%, more preferably at least 99.7%, more preferably at least 99.8%, and even more preferably at least 99.9% identical to the relevant nominated SEQ ID NO.

A polynucleotide of, or useful for, the present invention may selectively hybridise, under stringent conditions, to a polynucleotide defined herein. As used herein, stringent conditions are those that: (1) employ during hybridisation a denaturing agent such as formamide, for example, 50% (v/v) formamide with 0.1% (w/v) bovine serum albumin, 0.1% Ficoll, 0.1% polyvinylpyrrolidone, 50 mM sodium phosphate buffer at pH 6.5 with 750 mM NaCl, 75 mM sodium citrate at 42° C.; or (2) employ 50% formamide, 5×SSC (0.75 M NaCl, 0.075 M sodium citrate), 50 mM sodium phosphate (pH 6.8), 0.1% sodium pyrophosphate, 5×Denhardt's solution, sonicated salmon sperm DNA (50 g/ml), 0.1% SDS and 10% dextran sulfate at 42° C. in 0.2×SSC and 0.1% SDS, and/or (3) employ low ionic strength and high temperature for washing, for example, 0.015 M NaCl/0.0015 M sodium citrate/0.1% SDS at 50° C.

Polynucleotides of the invention may possess, when compared to naturally occurring molecules, one or more mutations which are deletions, insertions, or substitutions of nucleotide residues. Polynucleotides which have mutations relative to a reference sequence can be either naturally occurring (that is to say, isolated from a natural source) or synthetic (for example, by performing site-directed mutagenesis or DNA shuffling on the nucleic acid as described above).

Polynucleotide for Reducing Expression Levels of Endogenous Proteins

In one embodiment, the cell comprises an introduced mutation or an exogenous polynucleotide which down-regulates the production and/or activity of an endogenous enzyme (for example, a Δ12 desaturase), typically which results in an increased production of DHS when compared to a corresponding cell lacking the introduced mutation or exogenous polynucleotide. Examples of such polynucleotides include an antisense polynucleotide, a sense polynucleotide, a catalytic polynucleotide, a microRNA, a polynucleotide which encodes a polypeptide which binds the endogenous enzyme and a double stranded RNA.

RNA Interference

RNA interference (RNAi) is particularly useful for specifically inhibiting the production of a particular protein. This technology relies on the presence of dsRNA molecules that contain a sequence that is essentially identical to the mRNA of the gene of interest or part thereof. Conveniently, the dsRNA can be produced from a single promoter in a recombinant vector or host cell, where the sense and anti-sense sequences are flanked by an unrelated sequence which enables the sense and anti-sense sequences to hybridize to form the dsRNA molecule with an unrelated sequence forming a loop structure, although a sequence with identity to the target RNA or its complement can form the loop structure. Typically, the dsRNA is encoded by a double-stranded DNA construct which has sense and antisense sequences in an inverted repeat structure, arranged as an interrupted palindrome, where the repeated sequences are transcribed to produce the hybridising sequences in the dsRNA molecule, and the interrupt sequence is transcribed to form the loop in the dsRNA molecule. The design and production of suitable dsRNA molecules is well within the capacity of a person skilled in the art, particularly considering Waterhouse et al. (1998), Smith et al. (2000), WO 99/32619, WO 99/53050, WO 99/49029, and WO 01/34815.

In one example, a DNA is introduced that directs the synthesis of an at least partly double stranded RNA product(s) with homology, preferably at least 19 consecutive nucleotides complementary to a region of, a target RNA, to be inactivated. The DNA therefore comprises both sense and antisense sequences that, when transcribed into RNA, can hybridize to form the double stranded RNA region. In one embodiment of the invention, the sense and antisense sequences are separated by a spacer region that comprises an intron which, when transcribed into RNA, is spliced out. This arrangement has been shown to result in a higher efficiency of gene silencing. The double stranded region may comprise one or two RNA molecules, transcribed from either one DNA region or two. The presence of the double stranded molecule is thought to trigger a response from an endogenous system that destroys both the double stranded RNA and also the homologous RNA transcript from the target gene, efficiently reducing or eliminating the activity of the target gene.

The length of the sense and antisense sequences that hybridize should each be at least 19 contiguous nucleotides. The full-length sequence corresponding to the entire gene transcript may be used. The degree of identity of the sense and antisense sequences to the targeted transcript should be at least 85%, at least 90%, or at least 95-100%. The RNA molecule may of course comprise unrelated sequences which may function to stabilize the molecule. The RNA molecule may be expressed under the control of a RNA polymerase II or RNA polymerase III promoter. Examples of the latter include tRNA or snRNA promoters.

Preferred small interfering RNA (“siRNA”) molecules comprise a nucleotide sequence that is identical to about 19-21 contiguous nucleotides of the target mRNA. Preferably, the siRNA sequence commences with the dinucleotide AA, comprises a GC-content of about 30-70% (preferably, 30-60%, more preferably 40-60% and more preferably about 45%-55%), and does not have a high percentage identity to any nucleotide sequence other than the target in the genome of the organism in which it is to be introduced, for example, as determined by standard BLAST search.

microRNA

MicroRNAs (abbreviated miRNAs) are generally 19-25 nucleotides (commonly about 20-24 nucleotides in plants) non-coding RNA molecules that are derived from larger precursors that form imperfect stem-loop structures.

miRNAs bind to complementary sequences on target messenger RNA transcripts (mRNAs), usually resulting in translational repression or target degradation and gene silencing.

In plant cells, miRNA precursor molecules are believed to be largely processed in the nucleus. The pri-miRNA (containing one or more local double-stranded or “hairpin” regions as well as the usual 5′ “cap” and polyadenylated tail of an mRNA) is processed to a shorter miRNA precursor molecule that also includes a stem-loop or fold-back structure and is termed the “pre-miRNA”. In plants, the pre-miRNAs are cleaved by distinct DICER-like (DCL) enzymes, in particular DCL-1, yielding miRNA:miRNA* duplexes. Prior to transport out of the nucleus, these duplexes are methylated. In contrast, hairpin RNA molecules having longer dsRNA regions are processed in particular by DCL-3 and DCL-4. Most mammalian cells have only a single DICER polypeptide which cleaves multiple dsRNA structures.

In the cytoplasm, the miRNA strand from the miRNA:miRNA duplex is selectively incorporated into an active RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) for target recognition. The RISC-complexes contain a particular subset of Argonaute proteins that exert sequence-specific gene repression (see, for example, Millar and Waterhouse, 2005; Pasquinelli et al., 2005; Almeida and Allshire, 2005).

Cosuppression

Genes can suppress the expression of related endogenous genes and/or transgenes already present in the genome, a phenomenon termed homology-dependent gene silencing. Most of the instances of homology dependent gene silencing fall into two classes—those that function at the level of transcription of the transgene, and those that operate post-transcriptionally.

Post-transcriptional homology-dependent gene silencing (i.e., cosuppression) describes the loss of expression of a transgene and related endogenous or viral genes in transgenic plants. Cosuppression often, but not always, occurs when transgene transcripts are abundant, and it is generally thought to be triggered at the level of mRNA processing, localization, and/or degradation. Several models exist to explain how cosuppression works (see in Taylor, 1997).

One model, the “quantitative” or “RNA threshold” model, proposes that cells can cope with the accumulation of large amounts of transgene transcripts, but only up to a point. Once that critical threshold has been crossed, the sequence-dependent degradation of both transgene and related endogenous gene transcripts is initiated. It has been proposed that this mode of cosuppression may be triggered following the synthesis of copy RNA (cRNA) molecules by reverse transcription of the excess transgene mRNA, presumably by endogenous RNA-dependent RNA polymerases. These cRNAs may hybridize with transgene and endogenous mRNAs, the unusual hybrids targeting homologous transcripts for degradation. However, this model does not account for reports suggesting that cosuppression can apparently occur in the absence of transgene transcription and/or without the detectable accumulation of transgene transcripts.

To account for these data, a second model, the “qualitative” or “aberrant RNA” model, proposes that interactions between transgene RNA and DNA and/or between endogenous and introduced DNAs lead to the methylation of transcribed regions of the genes. The methylated genes are proposed to produce RNAs that are in some way aberrant, their anomalous features triggering the specific degradation of all related transcripts. Such aberrant RNAs may be produced by complex transgene loci, particularly those that contain inverted repeats.

A third model proposes that intermolecular base pairing between transcripts, rather than cRNA-mRNA hybrids generated through the action of an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, may trigger cosuppression. Such base pairing may become more common as transcript levels rise, the putative double-stranded regions triggering the targeted degradation of homologous transcripts. A similar model proposes intramolecular base pairing instead of intermolecular base pairing between transcripts.

Cosuppression involves introducing an extra copy of a gene or a fragment thereof into a plant in the sense orientation with respect to a promoter for its expression. A skilled person would appreciate that the size of the sense fragment, its correspondence to target gene regions, and its degree of sequence identity to the target gene can vary. In some instances, the additional copy of the gene sequence interferes with the expression of the target plant gene. Reference is made to WO 97/20936 and EP 0465572 for methods of implementing co-suppression approaches.

Expression Vector

As used herein, an “expression vector” is a DNA or RNA vector that is capable of transforming a host cell and of effecting expression of one or more specified polynucleotides. Preferably, the expression vector is also capable of replicating within the host cell. Expression vectors are typically viruses or plasmids. Expression vectors of the present invention include any vectors that function (i.e., direct gene expression) in host cells of the present invention, including in fungal, algal, and plant cells.

As used herein, “operably linked” refers to a functional relationship between two or more nucleic acid (e.g., DNA) segments. Typically, it refers to the functional relationship of transcriptional regulatory element (promoter) to a transcribed sequence. For example, a promoter is operably linked to a coding sequence of a polynucleotide defined herein, if it stimulates or modulates the transcription of the coding sequence in an appropriate cell. Generally, promoter transcriptional regulatory elements that are operably linked to a transcribed sequence are physically contiguous to the transcribed sequence, i.e., they are cis-acting. However, some transcriptional regulatory elements such as enhancers, need not be physically contiguous or located in close proximity to the coding sequences whose transcription they enhance.

Expression vectors of the present invention contain regulatory sequences such as transcription control sequences, translation control sequences, origins of replication, and other regulatory sequences that are compatible with the host cell and that control the expression of polynucleotides of the present invention. In particular, expression vectors of the present invention include transcription control sequences. Transcription control sequences are sequences which control the initiation, elongation, and termination of transcription. Particularly important transcription control sequences are those which control transcription initiation such as promoter, enhancer, operator and repressor sequences. Suitable transcription control sequences include any transcription control sequence that can function in at least one of the recombinant cells of the present invention. The choice of the regulatory sequences used depends on the target organism such as a plant and/or target organ or tissue of interest. Such regulatory sequences may be obtained from any eukaryotic organism such as plants or plant viruses, or may be chemically synthesized. A variety of such transcription control sequences are known to those skilled in the art. Particularly preferred transcription control sequences are promoters active in directing transcription in plants, either constitutively or stage and/or tissue specific, depending on the use of the plant or part(s) thereof.

A number of vectors suitable for stable transfection of plant cells or for the establishment of transgenic plants have been described in for example, Pouwels et al., Cloning Vectors: A Laboratory Manual, 1985, supp. 1987, Weissbach and Weissbach, Methods for Plant Molecular Biology, Academic Press, 1989, and Gelvin et al., Plant Molecular Biology Manual, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1990. Typically, plant expression vectors include for example, one or more cloned plant genes under the transcriptional control of 5′ and 3′ regulatory sequences and a dominant selectable marker. Such plant expression vectors also can contain a promoter regulatory region (e.g., a regulatory region controlling inducible or constitutive, environmentally- or developmentally-regulated, or cell- or tissue-specific expression), a transcription initiation start site, a ribosome binding site, an RNA processing signal, a transcription termination site, and/or a polyadenylation signal.

A number of constitutive promoters that are active in plant cells have been described. Suitable promoters for constitutive expression in plants include, but are not limited to, the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter, the Figwort mosaic virus (FMV) 35S, the sugarcane bacilliform virus promoter, the commelina yellow mottle virus promoter, the light-inducible promoter from the small subunit of the ribulose-1,5-bis-phosphate carboxylase, the rice cytosolic triosephosphate isomerase promoter, the adenine phosphoribosyltransferase promoter of Arabidopsis, the rice actin 1 gene promoter, the mannopine synthase and octopine synthase promoters, the Adh promoter, the sucrose synthase promoter, the R gene complex promoter, and the chlorophyll α/β binding protein gene promoter. These promoters have been used to create DNA vectors that have been expressed in plants, see for example, WO 84/02913. All of these promoters have been used to create various types of plant-expressible recombinant DNA vectors.

For the purpose of expression in source tissues of the plant such as the leaf, seed, root or stem, it is preferred that the promoters utilized in the present invention have relatively high expression in these specific tissues. For this purpose, one may choose from a number of promoters for genes with tissue- or cell-specific, or -enhanced expression. Examples of such promoters reported in the literature include, the chloroplast glutamine synthetase GS2 promoter from pea, the chloroplast fructose-1,6-biphosphatase promoter from wheat, the nuclear photosynthetic ST-LS1 promoter from potato, the serine/threonine kinase promoter and the glucoamylase (CHS) promoter from Arabidopsis thaliana. Also reported to be active in photosynthetically active tissues are the ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase promoter from eastern larch (Larix laricina), the promoter for the Cab gene, Cab6, from pine, the promoter for the Cab-1 gene from wheat, the promoter for the Cab-1 gene from spinach, the promoter for the Cab 1R gene from rice, the pyruvate, orthophosphate dikinase (PPDK) promoter from Zea mays, the promoter for the tobacco Lhcb1*2 gene, the Arabidopsis thaliana Suc2 sucrose-H³⁰ symporter promoter, and the promoter for the thylakoid membrane protein genes from spinach (PsaD, PsaF, PsaE, PC, FNR, AtpC, AtpD, Cab, RbcS). Other promoters for the chlorophyll α/β-binding proteins may also be utilized in the present invention such as the promoters for LhcB gene and PsbP gene from white mustard (Sinapis alba).

A variety of plant gene promoters that are regulated in response to environmental, hormonal, chemical, and/or developmental signals, also can be used for expression of RNA-binding protein genes in plant cells, including promoters regulated by (1) heat, (2) light (e.g., pea RbcS-3A promoter, maize RbcS promoter), (3) hormones such as abscisic acid, (4) wounding (e.g., WunI), or (5) chemicals such as methyl jasmonate, salicylic acid, steroid hormones, alcohol, Safeners (WO 97/06269), or it may also be advantageous to employ (6) organ-specific promoters.

For the purpose of expression in sink tissues of the plant such as the tuber of the potato plant, the fruit of tomato, or the seed of soybean, canola, cotton, Zea mays, wheat, rice, and barley, it is preferred that the promoters utilized in the present invention have relatively high expression in these specific tissues. A number of promoters for genes with tuber-specific or -enhanced expression are known, including the class I patatin promoter, the promoter for the potato tuber ADPGPP genes, both the large and small subunits, the sucrose synthase promoter, the promoter for the major tuber proteins, including the 22 kD protein complexes and proteinase inhibitors, the promoter for the granule bound starch synthase gene (GBSS), and other class I and II patatins promoters. Other promoters can also be used to express a protein in specific tissues such as seeds or fruits. The promoter for β-conglycinin or other seed-specific promoters such as the napin, zein, linin and phaseolin promoters, can be used. Root specific promoters may also be used. An example of such a promoter is the promoter for the acid chitinase gene. Expression in root tissue could also be accomplished by utilizing the root specific subdomains of the CaMV 35S promoter that have been identified.

In one embodiment, the promoter directs expression in tissues and organs in which lipid biosynthesis take place. Such promoters act in seed development at a suitable time for modifying lipid composition in seeds.

In one embodiment, especially for the expression of a silencing suppressor, the promoter is a plant storage organ specific promoter. As used herein, the term “plant storage organ specific promoter” refers to a promoter that preferentially, when compared to other plant tissues, directs gene transcription in a storage organ of a plant. Preferably, the promoter only directs expression of a gene of interest in the storage organ, and/or expression of the gene of interest in other parts of the plant such as leaves is not detectable by Northern blot analysis and/or RT-PCR. Typically, the promoter drives expression of genes during growth and development of the storage organ, in particular during the phase of synthesis and accumulation of storage compounds in the storage organ. Such promoters may drive gene expression in the entire plant storage organ or only part thereof such as the seedcoat, embryo or cotyledon(s) in seeds of dicotyledonous plants or the endosperm or aleurone layer of seeds of monocotyledonous plants. In one embodiment, the plant storage organ specific promoter is a seed specific promoter. In a more preferred embodiment, the promoter preferentially directs expression in the cotyledons of a dicotyledonous plant or in the endosperm of a monocotyledonous plant, relative to expression in the embryo of the seed or relative to other organs in the plant such as leaves. Preferred promoters for seed-specific expression include: 1) promoters from genes encoding enzymes involved in lipid biosynthesis and accumulation in seeds such as desaturases and elongases, 2) promoters from genes encoding seed storage proteins, and 3) promoters from genes encoding enzymes involved in carbohydrate biosynthesis and accumulation in seeds. Seed specific promoters which are suitable are, the oilseed rape napin gene promoter (U.S. Pat. No. 5,608,152), the Vicia faba USP promoter (Baumlein et al., 1991), the Arabidopsis oleosin promoter (WO 98/45461), the Phaseolus vulgaris phaseolin promoter (U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,200), the Brassica Bce4 promoter (WO 91/13980), or the legumin B4 promoter (Baumlein et al., 1992), and promoters which lead to the seed-specific expression in monocots such as maize, barley, wheat, rye, rice and the like. Notable promoters which are suitable are the barley 1pt2 or 1pt1 gene promoter (WO 95/15389 and WO 95/23230), or the promoters described in WO 99/16890 (promoters from the barley hordein gene, the rice glutelin gene, the rice oryzin gene, the rice prolamin gene, the wheat gliadin gene, the wheat glutelin gene, the maize zein gene, the oat glutelin gene, the sorghum kasirin gene, the rye secalin gene). Other promoters include those described by Broun et al. (1998), Potenza et al. (2004), US 20070192902 and US 20030159173. In an embodiment, the seed specific promoter is preferentially expressed in defined parts of the seed such as the cotyledon(s) or the endosperm. Examples of cotyledon specific promoters include, but are not limited to, the FP1 promoter (Ellerstrom et al., 1996), the pea legumin promoter (Perrin et al., 2000), and the bean phytohemagglutnin promoter (Perrin et al., 2000). Examples of endosperm specific promoters include, but are not limited to, the maize zein-1 promoter (Chikwamba et al., 2003), the rice glutelin-1 promoter (Yang et al., 2003), the barley D-hordein promoter (Horvath et al., 2000) and wheat HMW glutenin promoters (Alvarez et al., 2000). In a further embodiment, the seed specific promoter is not expressed, or is only expressed at a low level, in the embryo and/or after the seed germinates.

In another embodiment, the plant storage organ specific promoter is a tuber specific promoter. Examples include, but are not limited to, the potato patatin B33, PAT21 and GBSS promoters, as well as the sweet potato sporamin promoter (for review, see Potenza et al., 2004). In a preferred embodiment, the promoter directs expression preferentially in the pith of the tuber, relative to the outer layers (skin, bark) or the embryo of the tuber.

In another embodiment, the plant storage organ specific promoter is a fruit specific promoter. Examples include, but are not limited to, the tomato polygalacturonase, E8 and Pds promoters, as well as the apple ACC oxidase promoter (for review, see Potenza et al., 2004). In a preferred embodiment, the promoter preferentially directs expression in the edible parts of the fruit, for example the pith of the fruit, relative to the skin of the fruit or the seeds within the fruit.

When there are multiple promoters present, each promoter may independently be the same or different.

The 5′ non-translated leader sequence can be derived from the promoter selected to express the heterologous gene sequence of the polynucleotide, or may be heterologous with respect to the coding region of the enzyme to be produced, and can be specifically modified if desired so as to increase translation of mRNA. For a review of optimizing expression of transgenes, see Koziel et al. (1996). The 5′ non-translated regions can also be obtained from plant viral RNAs (Tobacco mosaic virus, Tobacco etch virus, Maize dwarf mosaic virus, Alfalfa mosaic virus, among others) from suitable eukaryotic genes, plant genes (wheat and maize chlorophyll a/b binding protein gene leader), or from a synthetic gene sequence. The present invention is not limited to constructs wherein the non-translated region is derived from the 5′ non-translated sequence that accompanies the promoter sequence. The leader sequence could also be derived from an unrelated promoter or coding sequence. Leader sequences useful in context of the present invention comprise the maize Hsp70 leader (U.S. Pat. No. 5,362,865 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,859,347), and the TMV omega element.

The termination of transcription is accomplished by a 3′ non-translated DNA sequence operably linked in the expression vector to the polynucleotide of interest. The 3′ non-translated region of a recombinant DNA molecule contains a polyadenylation signal that functions in plants to cause the addition of adenylate nucleotides to the 3′ end of the RNA. The 3′ non-translated region can be obtained from various genes that are expressed in, for example, plant cells. The nopaline synthase 3′ untranslated region, the 3′ untranslated region from pea small subunit

Rubisco gene, the 3′ untranslated region from soybean 7S seed storage protein gene are commonly used in this capacity. The 3′ transcribed, non-translated regions containing the polyadenylate signal of Agrobacterium tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid genes are also suitable.

Recombinant DNA technologies can be used to improve expression of a transformed polynucleotide by manipulating for example, the number of copies of the polynucleotide within a host cell, the efficiency with which those polynucleotides are transcribed, the efficiency with which the resultant transcripts are translated, and the efficiency of post-translational modifications. Recombinant techniques useful for increasing the expression of polynucleotides defined herein include, but are not limited to, operatively linking the polynucleotide to a high-copy number plasmid, integration of the polynucleotide molecule into one or more host cell chromosomes, addition of vector stability sequences to the plasmid, substitutions or modifications of transcription control signals (e.g., promoters, operators, enhancers), substitutions or modifications of translational control signals (e.g., ribosome binding sites, Shine-Dalgarno sequences), modification of the polynucleotide to correspond to the codon usage of the host cell, and the deletion of sequences that destabilize transcripts.

Recombinant vectors may also contain: (a) one or more secretory signals which encode signal peptide sequences, to enable an expressed polypeptide defined herein to be secreted from the cell that produces the polypeptide, or which provide for localisation of the expressed polypeptide, for example, for retention of the polypeptide in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in the cell, or transfer into a plastid, and/or (b) contain fusion sequences which lead to the expression of nucleic acid molecules as fusion proteins. Examples of suitable signal segments include any signal segment capable of directing the secretion or localisation of a polypeptide defined herein. Preferred signal segments include, but are not limited to, Nicotiana nectarin signal peptide (U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,288), tobacco extensin signal, or the soy oleosin oil body binding protein signal. Recombinant vectors may also include intervening and/or untranslated sequences surrounding and/or within the nucleic acid sequence of a polynucleotide defined herein.

To facilitate identification of transformants, the recombinant vector desirably comprises a selectable or screenable marker gene as, or in addition to, the nucleic acid sequence of a polynucleotide defined herein. By “marker gene” is meant a gene that imparts a distinct phenotype to cells expressing the marker gene and thus, allows such transformed cells to be distinguished from cells that do not have the marker. A selectable marker gene confers a trait for which one can “select” based on resistance to a selective agent (e.g., a herbicide, antibiotic, radiation, heat, or other treatment damaging to untransformed cells). A screenable marker gene (or reporter gene) confers a trait that one can identify through observation or testing, that is, by “screening” (e.g., β-glucuronidase, luciferase, GFP or other enzyme activity not present in untransformed cells). The marker gene and the nucleotide sequence of interest do not have to be linked, since co-transformation of unlinked genes as for example, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,216, is also an efficient process in for example, plant transformation. The actual choice of a marker is not crucial as long as it is functional (i.e., selective) in combination with the cells of choice such as a plant cell.

Exemplary selectable markers for selection of plant transformants include, but are not limited to, a hyg gene which encodes hygromycin B resistance; a neomycin phosphotransferase (nptII) gene conferring resistance to kanamycin, paromomycin, G418; a glutathione-S-transferase gene from rat liver conferring resistance to glutathione derived herbicides as for example, described in EP 256223; a glutamine synthetase gene conferring, upon overexpression, resistance to glutamine synthetase inhibitors such as phosphinothricin as for example, described in WO 87/05327; an acetyltransferase gene from Streptomyces viridochromogenes conferring resistance to the selective agent phosphinothricin as for example, described in EP 275957; a gene encoding a 5-enolshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) conferring tolerance to N-phosphonomethylglycine as for example, described by Hinchee et al. (1988); a bar gene conferring resistance against bialaphos as for example, described in WO91/02071; a nitrilase gene such as bxn from Klebsiella ozaenae which confers resistance to bromoxynil (Stalker et al., 1988); a dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) gene conferring resistance to methotrexate (Thillet et al., 1988); a mutant acetolactate synthase gene (ALS) which confers resistance to imidazolinone, sulfonylurea, or other ALS-inhibiting chemicals (EP 154,204); a mutated anthranilate synthase gene that confers resistance to 5-methyl tryptophan; or a dalapon dehalogenase gene that confers resistance to the herbicide.

Preferred screenable markers include, but are not limited to, a uidA gene encoding a β-glucuronidase (GUS) enzyme for which various chromogenic substrates are known; a β-galactosidase gene encoding an enzyme for which chromogenic substrates are known; an aequorin gene (Prasher et al., 1985) which may be employed in calcium-sensitive bioluminescence detection; a green fluorescent protein gene (Niedz et al., 1995) or derivatives thereof; or a luciferase (luc) gene (Ow et al., 1986) which allows for bioluminescence detection. By “reporter molecule” it is meant a molecule that, by its chemical nature, provides an analytically identifiable signal that facilitates determination of promoter activity by reference to protein product.

Preferably, the recombinant vector is stably incorporated into the genome of the cell such as the plant cell. Accordingly, the recombinant vector may comprise appropriate elements which allow the vector to be incorporated into the genome, or into a chromosome of the cell.

Transfer Nucleic Acids

Transfer nucleic acids can be used to deliver an exogenous polynucleotide to a cell and comprise one, preferably two, border sequences and a polynucleotide of interest. The transfer nucleic acid may or may not encode a selectable marker. Preferably, the transfer nucleic acid forms part of a binary vector in a bacterium, where the binary vector further comprises elements which allow replication of the vector in the bacterium, selection, or maintenance of bacterial cells containing the binary vector. Upon transfer to a eukaryotic cell, the transfer nucleic acid component of the binary vector is capable of integration into the genome of the eukaryotic cell.

As used herein, the term “extrachromosomal transfer nucleic acid” refers to a nucleic acid molecule that is capable of being transferred from a bacterium such as Agrobacterium sp., to a eukaryotic cell such as a plant leaf cell. An extrachromosomal transfer nucleic acid is a genetic element that is well-known as an element capable of being transferred, with the subsequent integration of a nucleotide sequence contained within its borders into the genome of the recipient cell. In this respect, a transfer nucleic acid is flanked, typically, by two “border” sequences, although in some instances a single border at one end can be used and the second end of the transferred nucleic acid is generated randomly in the transfer process. A polynucleotide of interest is typically positioned between the left border-like sequence and the right border-like sequence of a transfer nucleic acid. The polynucleotide contained within the transfer nucleic acid may be operably linked to a variety of different promoter and terminator regulatory elements that facilitate its expression, that is, transcription and/or translation of the polynucleotide. Transfer DNAs (T-DNAs) from Agrobacterium sp. such as Agrobacterium tumefaciens or Agrobacterium rhizogenes, and man made variants/mutants thereof are probably the best characterized examples of transfer nucleic acids. Another example is P-DNA (“plant-DNA”) which comprises T-DNA border-like sequences from plants.

As used herein, “T-DNA” refers to, for example, T-DNA of an Agrobacterium tumefaciens Ti plasmid or from an Agrobacterium rhizogenes Ri plasmid, or man made variants thereof which function as T-DNA. The T-DNA may comprise an entire T-DNA including both right and left border sequences, but need only comprise the minimal sequences required in cis for transfer, that is, the right and T-DNA border sequence. The T-DNAs of the invention have inserted into them, anywhere between the right and left border sequences (if present), the polynucleotide of interest flanked by target sites for a site-specific recombinase. The sequences encoding factors required in trans for transfer of the T-DNA into a plant cell such as vir genes, may be inserted into the T-DNA, or may be present on the same replicon as the T-DNA, or preferably are in trans on a compatible replicon in the Agrobacterium host. Such “binary vector systems” are well known in the art.

As used herein, “P-DNA” refers to a transfer nucleic acid isolated from a plant genome, or man made variants/mutants thereof, and comprises at each end, or at only one end, a T-DNA border-like sequence. The border-like sequence preferably shares at least 50%, at least 60%, at least 70%, at least 75%, at least 80%, at least 90% or at least 95%, but less than 100% sequence identity, with a T-DNA border sequence from an Agrobacterium sp. such as Agrobacterium tumefaciens or Agrobacterium rhizogenes. Thus, P-DNAs can be used instead of T-DNAs to transfer a nucleotide sequence contained within the P-DNA from, for example Agrobacterium, to another cell. The P-DNA, before insertion of the exogenous polynucleotide which is to be transferred, may be modified to facilitate cloning and should preferably not encode any proteins. The P-DNA is characterized in that it contains, at least a right border sequence and preferably also a left border sequence.

As used herein, a “border” sequence of a transfer nucleic acid can be isolated from a selected organism such as a plant or bacterium, or be a man made variant/mutant thereof. The border sequence promotes and facilitates the transfer of the polynucleotide to which it is linked and may facilitate its integration in the recipient cell genome. In an embodiment, a border-sequence is between 5-100 base pairs (bp) in length, 10-80 bp in length, 15-75 bp in length, 15-60 bp in length, 15-50 bp in length, 15-40 bp in length, 15-30 bp in length, 16-30 bp in length, 20-30 bp in length, 21-30 bp in length, 22-30 bp in length, 23-30 bp in length, 24-30 bp in length, 25-30 bp in length, or 26-30 bp in length. Border sequences from T-DNA from Agrobacterium sp. are well known in the art and include those described in Lacroix et al. (2008), Tzfira and Citovsky (2006) and Glevin (2003).

Whilst traditionally only Agrobacterium sp. have been used to transfer genes to plants cells, there are now a large number of systems which have been identified/developed which act in a similar manner to Agrobacterium sp. Several non-Agrobacterium species have recently been genetically modified to be competent for gene transfer (Chung et al., 2006; Broothaerts et al., 2005). These include Rhizobium sp. NGR234, Sinorhizobium meliloti and Mezorhizobium loti. The bacteria are made competent for gene transfer by providing the bacteria with the machinery needed for the transformation process, that is, a set of virulence genes encoded by an Agrobacterium Ti-plasmid and the T-DNA segment residing on a separate, small binary plasmid. Bacteria engineered in this way are capable of transforming different plant tissues (leaf disks, calli and oval tissue), monocots or dicots, and various different plant species (e.g., tobacco, rice).

Direct transfer of eukaryotic expression plasmids from bacteria to eukaryotic hosts was first achieved several decades ago by the fusion of mammalian cells and protoplasts of plasmid-carrying Escherichia coli (Schaffner, 1980). Since then, the number of bacteria capable of delivering genes into mammalian cells has steadily increased (Weiss, 2003; Sizemore et al., 1995; Courvalin et al., 1995; Powell et al., 1996).

Attenuated Shigella flexneri, Salmonella typhimurium or E. coli that had been rendered invasive by the virulence plasmid (pWR100) of S. flexneri have been shown to be able to transfer expression plasmids after invasion of host cells and intracellular death due to metabolic attenuation. Mucosal application, either nasally or orally, of such recombinant Shigella or Salmonella induced immune responses against the antigen that was encoded by the expression plasmids. In the meantime, the list of bacteria that was shown to be able to transfer expression plasmids to mammalian host cells in vitro and in vivo has been more then doubled and has been documented for S. typhi, S. choleraesuis, Listeria monocytogenes, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, and Y. enterocolitica (Fennelly et al., 1999; Shiau et al., 2001; Dietrich et al., 1998; Hense et al., 2001; Al-Mariri et al., 2002).

In general, it could be assumed that all bacteria that are able to enter the cytosol of the host cell (like S. flexneri or L. monocytogenes) and lyse within this cellular compartment, should be able to transfer DNA. This is known as ‘abortive’ or ‘suicidal’ invasion as the bacteria have to lyse for the DNA transfer to occur (Grillot-Courvalin et al., 1999). In addition, even many of the bacteria that remain in the phagocytic vacuole (like S. typhimurium) may also be able to do so. Thus, recombinant laboratory strains of E. coli that have been engineered to be invasive but are unable of phagosomal escape, could deliver their plasmid load to the nucleus of the infected mammalian cell nevertheless (Grillot-Courvalin et al., 1998). Furthermore, Agrobacterium tumefaciens has recently also been shown to introduce transgenes into mammalian cells (Kunik et al., 2001).

As used herein, the terms “transfection”, “transformation” and variations thereof are generally used interchangeably. “Transfected” or “transformed” cells may have been manipulated to introduce the polynucleotide(s) of interest, or may be progeny cells derived therefrom.

Recombinant Cells

The invention also provides a recombinant cell, for example, a recombinant plant cell, which is a host cell transformed with one or more polynucleotides or vectors defined herein, or combination thereof. The term “recombinant cell” is used interchangeably with the term “transgenic cell” herein. Suitable cells of the invention include any cell that can be transformed with a polynucleotide or recombinant vector of the invention, encoding for example, a polypeptide or enzyme described herein. The cell is preferably a cell which is thereby capable of being used for producing lipid. The recombinant cell may be a cell in culture, a cell in vitro, or in an organism such as for example, a plant, or in an organ such as, for example, a seed or a leaf. Preferably, the cell is in a plant, more preferably in the seed of a plant.

Host cells into which the polynucleotide(s) are introduced can be either untransformed cells or cells that are already transformed with at least one nucleic acid. Such nucleic acids may be related to lipid synthesis, or unrelated. Host cells of the present invention either can be endogenously (i.e., naturally) capable of producing polypeptide(s) defined herein, in which case the recombinant cell derived therefrom has an enhanced capability of producing the polypeptide(s), or can be capable of producing said polypeptide(s) only after being transformed with at least one polynucleotide of the invention. In an embodiment, a recombinant cell of the invention has an enhanced capacity to produce non-polar lipid.

Host cells of the present invention can be any cell capable of producing at least one protein described herein, and include fungal (including yeast), and plant cells. The cells may be prokaryotic or eukaryotic. Preferred host cells are yeast, algal and plant cells. In a preferred embodiment, the plant cell is a seed cell, in particular, a cell in a cotyledon or endosperm of a seed. Examples of algal cells useful as host cells of the present invention include, for example, Chlamydomonas sp. (for example, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii), Dunaliella sp., Haematococcus sp., Chlorella sp., Thraustochytrium sp., Schizochytrium sp., and Volvox sp.

Host cells for expression of the instant nucleic acids may include microbial hosts that grow on a variety of feedstocks, including simple or complex carbohydrates, organic acids and alcohols and/or hydrocarbons over a wide range of temperature and pH values. Preferred microbial hosts are oleaginous organisms that are naturally capable of non-polar lipid synthesis.

The host cells may be of an organism suitable for a fermentation process, such as, for example, Yarrowia lipolytica or other yeasts.

Transgenic Plants

The invention also provides a plant comprising an exogenous polynucleotide or polypeptide of the invention, a cell of the invention, a vector of the invention, or a combination thereof. The term “plant” refers to whole plants, whilst the term “part thereof” refers to plant organs (e.g., leaves, stems, roots, flowers, fruits), single cells (e.g., pollen), seed, seed parts such as an embryo, endosperm, scutellum or seed coat, plant tissue such as vascular tissue, plant cells and progeny of the same. As used herein, plant parts comprise plant cells.

As used herein, the term “plant” is used in it broadest sense. It includes, but is not limited to, any species of grass, ornamental or decorative plant, crop or cereal (e.g., oilseed, maize, soybean), fodder or forage, fruit or vegetable plant, herb plant, woody plant, flower plant, or tree. It is not meant to limit a plant to any particular structure. It also refers to a unicellular plant (e.g., microalga). The term “part thereof” in reference to a plant refers to a plant cell and progeny of same, a plurality of plant cells that are largely differentiated into a colony (e.g., volvox), a structure that is present at any stage of a plant's development, or a plant tissue. Such structures include, but are not limited to, leaves, stems, flowers, fruits, nuts, roots, seed, seed coat, embryos. The term “plant tissue” includes differentiated and undifferentiated tissues of plants including those present in leaves, stems, flowers, fruits, nuts, roots, seed, for example, embryonic tissue, endosperm, dermal tissue (e.g., epidermis, periderm), vascular tissue (e.g., xylem, phloem), or ground tissue (comprising parenchyma, collenchyma, and/or sclerenchyma cells), as well as cells in culture (e.g., single cells, protoplasts, callus, embryos, etc.). Plant tissue may be in planta, in organ culture, tissue culture, or cell culture.

A “transgenic plant”, “genetically modified plant” or variations thereof refers to a plant that contains a transgene not found in a wild-type plant of the same species, variety or cultivar. Transgenic plants as defined in the context of the present invention include plants and their progeny which have been genetically modified using recombinant techniques to cause production of at least one polypeptide defined herein in the desired plant or part thereof. Transgenic plant parts have a corresponding meaning.

The terms “seed” and “grain” are used interchangeably herein. “Grain” refers to mature grain such as harvested grain or grain which is still on a plant but ready for harvesting, but can also refer to grain after imbibition or germination, according to the context. Mature grain commonly has a moisture content of less than about 18-20%. “Developing seed” as used herein refers to a seed prior to maturity, typically found in the reproductive structures of the plant after fertilisation or anthesis, but can also refer to such seeds prior to maturity which are isolated from a plant.

As used herein, the term “plant storage organ” refers to a part of a plant specialized to store energy in the form of for example, proteins, carbohydrates, lipid. Examples of plant storage organs are seed, fruit, tuberous roots, and tubers. A preferred plant storage organ of the invention is seed.

As used herein, the term “vegetative tissue” or “vegetative plant part” or variants thereof is any plant tissue, organ or part that does not include the organs for sexual reproduction of plants or the seed bearing organs or the closely associated tissues or organs such as flowers, fruits and seeds. Vegetative tissues and parts include at least plant leaves, stems (including bolts and tillers but excluding the heads), tubers and roots, but excludes flowers, pollen, seed including the seed coat, embryo and endosperm, fruit including mesocarp tissue, seed-bearing pods and seed-bearing heads. In one embodiment, the vegetative part of the plant is an aerial plant part. In another or further embodiment, the vegetative plant part is a green part such as a leaf or stem. Vegetative parts include those parts principally involved in providing or supporting the photosynthetic capacity of the plant or related function, or anchoring the plant.

As used herein, the term “phenotypically normal” refers to a genetically modified plant or part thereof, particularly a storage organ such as a seed, tuber or fruit of the invention not having a significantly reduced ability to grow and reproduce when compared to an unmodified plant or part thereof. In an embodiment, the genetically modified plant or part thereof which is phenotypically normal comprises a recombinant polynucleotide encoding a silencing suppressor operably linked to a plant storage organ specific promoter and has an ability to grow or reproduce which is essentially the same as a corresponding plant or part thereof not comprising said polynucleotide. Preferably, the biomass, growth rate, germination rate, storage organ size, seed size and/or the number of viable seeds produced is not less than 90% of that of a plant lacking said recombinant polynucleotide when grown under identical conditions. This term does not encompass features of the plant which may be different to the wild-type plant but which do not effect the usefulness of the plant for commercial purposes such as, for example, a ballerina phenotype of seedling leaves.

Plants provided by or contemplated for use in the practice of the present invention include both monocotyledons and dicotyledons. In preferred embodiments, the plants of the present invention are crop plants (for example, cereals and pulses, maize, wheat, potatoes, tapioca, rice, sorghum, millet, cassava, barley, or pea), or other legumes. The plants may be grown for production of edible roots, tubers, leaves, stems, flowers or fruits. The plants may be vegetable or ornamental plants. The plants of the invention may be: corn (Zea mays), canola (Brassica napus, Brassica rapa ssp.), other Brassicas such as, for example, rutabaga (Brassica napobrassica), mustard (Brassica juncea), Ethiopian mustard (Brassica carinata), crambe (Crambe abyssinica), camelina (Camelina sativa), sugarbeet (Beta vulgaris), clover (Trifolium sp.), flax (Linum usitatissimum), alfalfa (Medicago sativa), rice (Oryza sativa), rye (Secale cerale), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor, Sorghum vulgare), sunflower (Helianthus annus), wheat (Tritium aestivum), soybean (Glycine max), tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), potato (Solanum tuberosum), peanuts (Arachis hypogaea), cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), sweet potato (Lopmoea batatus), cassava (Manihot esculenta), coffee (Cofea spp.), coconut (Cocos nucifera), pineapple (Anana comosus), citris tree (Citrus spp.), cocoa (Theobroma cacao), tea (Camellia senensis), banana (Musa spp.), avocado (Persea americana), fig (Ficus casica), guava (Psidium guajava), mango (Mangifer indica), olive (Olea europaea), papaya (Carica papaya), cashew (Anacardium occidentale), macadamia (Macadamia intergrifolia), almond (Prunus amygdalus), jatropha (Jatropha curcas), lupins, Eucalypts, palm, nut sage, pongamia, oats, or barley.

Other preferred plants include C4 grasses such as Andropogon gerardi, Bouteloua curtipendula, B. gracilis, Buchloe dactyloides, Panicum virgatum, Schizachyrium scoparium, Miscanthus species for example, Miscanthus×giganteus and Miscanthus sinensis, Sorghastrum nutans, Sporobolus cryptandrus, Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), Brachyaria; C3 grasses such as Elymus canadensis, the legumes Lespedeza capitata and Petalostemum villosum, the forb Aster azureus; and woody plants such as Quercus ellipsoidalis and Q. macrocarpa.

In a preferred embodiment, the plant is an angiosperm.

In an embodiment, the plant is an oilseed plant, preferably an oilseed crop plant. As used herein, an “oilseed plant” is a plant species used for the commercial production of lipid from the seeds of the plant. The oilseed plant may be oil-seed rape (such as canola), maize, sunflower, safflower, soybean, sorghum, flax (linseed) or sugar beet. Furthermore, the oilseed plant may be other Brassicas, cotton, peanut, poppy, rutabaga, mustard, castor bean, sesame, safflower, or nut producing plants. The plant may produce high levels of lipid in its fruit such as olive, oil palm or coconut. Horticultural plants to which the present invention may be applied are lettuce, endive, or vegetable Brassicas including cabbage, broccoli, or cauliflower. The present invention may be applied in tobacco, cucurbits, carrot, strawberry, tomato, or pepper.

In a preferred embodiment, the transgenic plant is homozygous for each and every gene that has been introduced (transgene) so that its progeny do not segregate for the desired phenotype. The transgenic plant may also be heterozygous for the introduced transgene(s), preferably uniformly heterozygous for the transgene such as for example, in F1 progeny which have been grown from hybrid seed. Such plants may provide advantages such as hybrid vigour, well known in the art.

Where relevant, the transgenic plants may also comprise additional transgenes encoding enzymes involved in the production of non-polar lipid such as, but not limited to LPAAT, LPCAT, PAP, or a phospholipid:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (PDAT1, PDAT2 or PDAT3; see for example, Ghosal et al., 2007), or a combination of two or more thereof. The transgenic plants of the invention may also express oleosin from an exogenous polynucleotide.

Transformation of Plants

Transgenic plants can be produced using techniques known in the art, such as those generally described in Slater et al., Plant Biotechnology—The Genetic Manipulation of Plants, Oxford University Press (2003), and Christou and Klee, Handbook of Plant Biotechnology, John Wiley and Sons (2004).

As used herein, the terms “stably transforming”, “stably transformed” and variations thereof refer to the integration of the polynucleotide into the genome of the cell such that they are transferred to progeny cells during cell division without the need for positively selecting for their presence. Stable transformants, or progeny thereof, can be selected by any means known in the art such as Southern blots on chromosomal DNA, or in situ hybridization of genomic DNA.

Agrobacterium-mediated transfer is a widely applicable system for introducing genes into plant cells because DNA can be introduced into cells in whole plant tissues, plant organs, or explants in tissue culture, for either transient expression, or for stable integration of the DNA in the plant cell genome. The use of Agrobacterium-mediated plant integrating vectors to introduce DNA into plant cells is well known in the art (see for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,177,010, 5,104,310, 5,004,863, or U.S. Pat. No. 5,159,135). The region of DNA to be transferred is defined by the border sequences, and the intervening DNA (T-DNA) is usually inserted into the plant genome. Further, the integration of the T-DNA is a relatively precise process resulting in few rearrangements. In those plant varieties where Agrobacterium-mediated transformation is efficient, it is the method of choice because of the facile and defined nature of the gene transfer. Preferred Agrobacterium transformation vectors are capable of replication in E. coli as well as Agrobacterium, allowing for convenient manipulations as described (Klee et al., In: Plant DNA Infectious Agents, Hohn and Schell, eds., Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 179-203 (1985)).

Acceleration methods that may be used include for example, microprojectile bombardment and the like. One example of a method for delivering transforming nucleic acid molecules to plant cells is microprojectile bombardment. This method has been reviewed by Yang et al., Particle Bombardment Technology for Gene Transfer, Oxford Press, Oxford, England (1994). Non-biological particles (microprojectiles) that may be coated with nucleic acids and delivered into cells by a propelling force. Exemplary particles include those comprised of tungsten, gold, platinum, and the like. A particular advantage of microprojectile bombardment, in addition to it being an effective means of reproducibly transforming monocots, is that neither the isolation of protoplasts, nor the susceptibility of Agrobacterium infection are required. An illustrative embodiment of a method for delivering DNA into Zea mays cells by acceleration is a biolistics α-particle delivery system, that can be used to propel particles coated with DNA through a screen such as a stainless steel or Nytex screen, onto a filter surface covered with corn cells cultured in suspension. A particle delivery system suitable for use with the present invention is the helium acceleration PDS-1000/He gun available from Bio-Rad Laboratories.

For the bombardment, cells in suspension may be concentrated on filters. Filters containing the cells to be bombarded are positioned at an appropriate distance below the microprojectile stopping plate. If desired, one or more screens are also positioned between the gun and the cells to be bombarded.

Alternatively, immature embryos or other target cells may be arranged on solid culture medium. The cells to be bombarded are positioned at an appropriate distance below the microprojectile stopping plate. If desired, one or more screens are also positioned between the acceleration device and the cells to be bombarded. Through the use of techniques set forth herein, one may obtain up to 1000 or more foci of cells transiently expressing a marker gene. The number of cells in a focus that express the gene product 48 hours post-bombardment often range from one to ten and average one to three.

In bombardment transformation, one may optimize the pre-bombardment culturing conditions and the bombardment parameters to yield the maximum numbers of stable transformants. Both the physical and biological parameters for bombardment are important in this technology. Physical factors are those that involve manipulating the DNA/microprojectile precipitate or those that affect the flight and velocity of either the macro- or microprojectiles. Biological factors include all steps involved in manipulation of cells before and immediately after bombardment, the osmotic adjustment of target cells to help alleviate the trauma associated with bombardment, and also the nature of the transforming DNA such as linearized DNA or intact supercoiled plasmids. It is believed that pre-bombardment manipulations are especially important for successful transformation of immature embryos.

In another alternative embodiment, plastids can be stably transformed. Methods disclosed for plastid transformation in higher plants include particle gun delivery of DNA containing a selectable marker and targeting of the DNA to the plastid genome through homologous recombination (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,451,513, 5,545,818, 5,877,402, 5,932,479, and WO 99/05265).

Accordingly, it is contemplated that one may wish to adjust various aspects of the bombardment parameters in small scale studies to fully optimize the conditions. One may particularly wish to adjust physical parameters such as gap distance, flight distance, tissue distance, and helium pressure. One may also minimize the trauma reduction factors by modifying conditions that influence the physiological state of the recipient cells and that may therefore influence transformation and integration efficiencies. For example, the osmotic state, tissue hydration and the subculture stage, or cell cycle of the recipient cells, may be adjusted for optimum transformation. The execution of other routine adjustments will be known to those of skill in the art in light of the present disclosure.

Transformation of plant protoplasts can be achieved using methods based on calcium phosphate precipitation, polyethylene glycol treatment, electroporation, and combinations of these treatments. Application of these systems to different plant varieties depends upon the ability to regenerate that particular plant strain from protoplasts. Illustrative methods for the regeneration of cereals from protoplasts are described (Fujimura et al., 1985; Toriyama et al., 1986; Abdullah et al., 1986).

Other methods of cell transformation can also be used and include but are not limited to the introduction of DNA into plants by direct DNA transfer into pollen, by direct injection of DNA into reproductive organs of a plant, or by direct injection of DNA into the cells of immature embryos followed by the rehydration of desiccated embryos.

The regeneration, development, and cultivation of plants from single plant protoplast transformants or from various transformed explants is well known in the art (Weissbach et al., In: Methods for Plant Molecular Biology, Academic Press, San Diego, Calif., (1988)). This regeneration and growth process typically includes the steps of selection of transformed cells, culturing those individualized cells through the usual stages of embryonic development through the rooted plantlet stage. Transgenic embryos and seeds are similarly regenerated. The resulting transgenic rooted shoots are thereafter planted in an appropriate plant growth medium such as soil.

The development or regeneration of plants containing the foreign, exogenous gene is well known in the art. Preferably, the regenerated plants are self-pollinated to provide homozygous transgenic plants. Otherwise, pollen obtained from the regenerated plants is crossed to seed-grown plants of agronomically important lines. Conversely, pollen from plants of these important lines is used to pollinate regenerated plants. A transgenic plant of the present invention containing a desired polynucleotide is cultivated using methods well known to one skilled in the art.

Methods for transforming dicots, primarily by use of Agrobacterium tumefaciens, and obtaining transgenic plants have been published for cotton (U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,863, U.S. Pat. No. 5,159,135, U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,908), soybean (U.S. Pat. No. 5,569,834, U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,011), Brassica (U.S. Pat. No. 5,463,174), peanut (Cheng et al., 1996), and pea (Grant et al., 1995).

Methods for transformation of cereal plants such as wheat and barley for introducing genetic variation into the plant by introduction of an exogenous nucleic acid and for regeneration of plants from protoplasts or immature plant embryos are well known in the art, see for example, CA 2,092,588, AU 61781/94, AU 667939, U.S. Pat. No. 6,100,447, PCT/US97/10621, U.S. Pat. No. 5,589,617, U.S. Pat. No. 6,541,257, and other methods are set out in WO 99/14314. Preferably, transgenic wheat or barley plants are produced by Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation procedures. Vectors carrying the desired polynucleotide may be introduced into regenerable wheat cells of tissue cultured plants or explants, or suitable plant systems such as protoplasts.

The regenerable wheat cells are preferably from the scutellum of immature embryos, mature embryos, callus derived from these, or the meristematic tissue.

To confirm the presence of the transgenes in transgenic cells and plants, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification or Southern blot analysis can be performed using methods known to those skilled in the art. Expression products of the transgenes can be detected in any of a variety of ways, depending upon the nature of the product, and include Western blot and enzyme assay. One particularly useful way to quantitate protein expression and to detect replication in different plant tissues is to use a reporter gene such as GUS. Once transgenic plants have been obtained, they may be grown to produce plant tissues or parts having the desired phenotype. The plant tissue or plant parts, may be harvested, and/or the seed collected. The seed may serve as a source for growing additional plants with tissues or parts having the desired characteristics.

A transgenic plant formed using Agrobacterium or other transformation methods typically contains a single genetic locus on one chromosome. Such transgenic plants can be referred to as being hemizygous for the added gene(s). More preferred is a transgenic plant that is homozygous for the added gene(s), that is, a transgenic plant that contains two added genes, one gene at the same locus on each chromosome of a chromosome pair. A homozygous transgenic plant can be obtained by self-fertilising a hemizygous transgenic plant, germinating some of the seed produced and analyzing the resulting plants for the gene of interest.

It is also to be understood that two different transgenic plants that contain two independently segregating exogenous genes or loci can also be crossed (mated) to produce offspring that contain both sets of genes or loci. Selfing of appropriate F1 progeny can produce plants that are homozygous for both exogenous genes or loci. Back-crossing to a parental plant and out-crossing with a non-transgenic plant are also contemplated, as is vegetative propagation. Descriptions of other breeding methods that are commonly used for different traits and crops can be found in Fehr, In: Breeding Methods for Cultivar Development, Wilcox J. ed., American Society of Agronomy, Madison Wis. (1987).

Enhancing Exogenous RNA Levels and Stabilized Expression

Post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) is a nucleotide sequence-specific defense mechanism that can target both cellular and viral mRNAs for degradation. PTGS occurs in plants or fungi stably or transiently transformed with a recombinant polynucleotide(s) and results in the reduced accumulation of RNA molecules with sequence similarity to the introduced polynucleotide.

RNA molecule levels can be increased, and/or RNA molecule levels stabilized over numerous generations, by limiting the expression of a silencing suppressor in a storage organ of a plant or part thereof. As used herein, a “silencing suppressor” is any polynucleotide or polypeptide that can be expressed in a plant cell that enhances the level of expression product from a different transgene in the plant cell, particularly, over repeated generations from the initially transformed plant. In an embodiment, the silencing suppressor is a viral silencing suppressor or mutant thereof. A large number of viral silencing suppressors are known in the art and include, but are not limited to P19, V2, P38, Pe-Po and RPV-P0. Examples of suitable viral silencing suppressors include those described in WO 2010/057246. A silencing suppressor may be stably expressed in a plant or part thereof of the present invention.

As used herein, the term “stably expressed” or variations thereof refers to the level of the RNA molecule being essentially the same or higher in progeny plants over repeated generations, for example, at least three, at least five, or at least ten generations, when compared to corresponding plants lacking the exogenous polynucleotide encoding the silencing suppressor. However, this term(s) does not exclude the possibility that over repeated generations there is some loss of levels of the RNA molecule when compared to a previous generation, for example, not less than a 10% loss per generation.

The suppressor can be selected from any source e.g. plant, viral, mammal, etc. The suppressor may be, for example:

flock house virus B2,

pothos latent virus P14,

pothos latent virus AC2,

African cassava mosaic virus AC4,

bhendi yellow vein mosaic disease C2,

bhendi yellow vein mosaic disease C4,

bhendi yellow vein mosaic disease βC1,

tomato chlorosis virus p22,

tomato chlorosis virus CP,

tomato chlorosis virus CPm,

tomato golden mosaic virus AL2,

tomato leaf curl Java virus βC1,

tomato yellow leaf curl virus V2,

tomato yellow leaf curl virus-China C2,

tomato yellow leaf curl China virus Y10 isolate βC1,

tomato yellow leaf curl Israeli isolate V2,

mungbean yellow mosaic virus-Vigna AC2,

hibiscus chlorotic ringspot virus CP,

turnip crinkle virus P38,

turnip crinkle virus CP,

cauliflower mosaic virus P6,

beet yellows virus p21,

citrus tristeza virus p20,

citrus tristeza virus p23,

citrus tristeza virus CP,

cowpea mosaic virus SCP,

sweet potato chlorotic stunt virus p22,

cucumber mosaic virus 2b,

tomato aspermy virus HC-Pro,

beet curly top virus L2,

soil borne wheat mosaic virus 19K,

barley stripe mosaic virus Gammab,

poa semilatent virus Gammab,

peanut clump pecluvirus P15,

rice dwarf virus Pns10,

curubit aphid borne yellows virus P0,

beet western yellows virus P0,

potato virus X P25,

cucumber vein yellowing virus P1b,

plum pox virus HC-Pro,

sugarcane mosaic virus HC-Pro,

potato virus Y strain HC-Pro,

tobacco etch virus P1/HC-Pro,

turnip mosaic virus P1/HC-Pro,

cocksfoot mottle virus P1,

cocksfoot mottle virus-Norwegian isolate P1,

rice yellow mottle virus P1,

rice yellow mottle virus-Nigerian isolate P1,

rice hoja blanca virus NS3,

rice stripe virus NS3,

crucifer infecting tobacco mosaic virus 126K,

crucifer infecting tobacco mosaic virus p122,

tobacco mosaic virus p122,

tobacco mosaic virus 126,

tobacco mosaic virus 130K,

tobacco rattle virus 16K,

tomato bushy stunt virus P19,

tomato spotted wilt virus NSs,

apple chlorotic leaf spot virus P50,

grapevine virus A p10,

grapevine leafroll associated virus-2 homolog of BYV p21, as well as variants/mutants thereof. The list above provides the virus from which the suppressor can be obtained and the protein (e.g., B2, P14, etc.), or coding region designation for the suppressor from each particular virus.

Multiple copies of a suppressor may be used. Different suppressors may be used together (e.g., in tandem).

Essentially any RNA molecule which is desirable to be expressed in a plant storage organ can be co-expressed with the silencing suppressor. The RNA molecule may influence an agronomic trait, insect resistance, disease resistance, herbicide resistance, sterility, grain characteristics, and the like. The encoded polypeptides may be involved in metabolism of lipid, starch, carbohydrates, nutrients, etc., or may be responsible for the synthesis of proteins, peptides, lipids, waxes, starches, sugars, carbohydrates, flavors, odors, toxins, carotenoids, hormones, polymers, flavonoids, storage proteins, phenolic acids, alkaloids, lignins, tannins, celluloses, glycoproteins, glycolipids, etc.

In a particular example, the plants produced increased levels of enzymes for lipid production in plants such as Brassicas, for example oilseed rape or sunflower, safflower, flax, cotton, soybean or maize.

Production of Non-Polar Lipids Comprising DHS or Fatty Acid Derivatives Thereof

Techniques that are routinely practiced in the art can be used to extract, process, purify and analyze the non-polar lipids produced by cells, organisms or parts thereof of the instant invention. Such techniques are described and explained throughout the literature in sources such as, Fereidoon Shahidi, Current Protocols in Food Analytical Chemistry, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2001) D1.1.1-D1.1.11, and Perez-Vich et al. (1998).

Production of Seedoil

Typically, plant seeds are cooked, pressed, and/or extracted to produce crude seedoil, which is then degummed, refined, bleached, and deodorized. Generally, techniques for crushing seed are known in the art. For example, oilseeds can be tempered by spraying them with water to raise the moisture content to, for example, 8.5%, and flaked using a smooth roller with a gap setting of 0.23 to 0.27 mm Depending on the type of seed, water may not be added prior to crushing. Application of heat deactivates enzymes, facilitates further cell rupturing, coalesces the lipid droplets, and agglomerates protein particles, all of which facilitate the extraction process.

The majority of the seedoil is released by passage through a screw press. Cakes expelled from the screw press are then solvent extracted for example, with hexane, using a heat traced column. Alternatively, crude seedoil produced by the pressing operation can be passed through a settling tank with a slotted wire drainage top to remove the solids that are expressed with the seedoil during the pressing operation. The clarified seedoil can be passed through a plate and frame filter to remove any remaining fine solid particles. If desired, the seedoil recovered from the extraction process can be combined with the clarified seedoil to produce a blended crude seedoil.

Once the solvent is stripped from the crude seedoil, the pressed and extracted portions are combined and subjected to normal lipid processing procedures (i.e., degumming, caustic refining, bleaching, and deodorization). Degumming can be performed by addition of concentrated phosphoric acid to the crude seedoil to convert non-hydratable phosphatides to a hydratable form, and to chelate minor metals that are present. Gum is separated from the seedoil by centrifugation. The seedoil can be refined by addition of a sufficient amount of a sodium hydroxide solution to titrate all of the fatty acids and removing the soaps thus formed.

Deodorization can be performed by heating the seedoil to 260° C. under vacuum, and slowly introducing steam into the seedoil at a rate of about 0.1 ml/minute/100 ml of seedoil. After about 30 minutes of sparging, the seedoil is allowed to cool under vacuum. The seedoil is typically transferred to a glass container and flushed with argon before being stored under refrigeration. If the amount of seedoil is limited, the seedoil can be placed under vacuum for example, in a Parr reactor and heated to 260° C. for the same length of time that it would have been deodorized. This treatment improves the colour of the seedoil and removes a majority of the volatile substances.

Degumming

Degumming is an early step in the refining of oils and its primary purpose is the removal of most of the phospholipids from the oil, which may be present as approximately 1-2% of the total extracted lipid. Addition of ˜2% of water, typically containing phosphoric acid, at 70-80° C. to the crude oil results in the separation of most of the phospholipids accompanied by trace metals and pigments. The insoluble material that is removed is mainly a mixture of phospholipids and triacylglycerols and is also known as lecithin. Degumming can be performed by addition of concentrated phosphoric acid to the crude oil to convert non-hydratable phosphatides to a hydratable form, and to chelate minor metals that are present. Gum is separated from the oil by centrifugation.

Alkali Refining

Alkali refining is one of the refining processes for treating crude oil, sometimes also referred to as neutralization. It usually follows degumming and precedes bleaching. Following degumming, the oil can treated by the addition of a sufficient amount of an alkali solution to titrate all of the fatty acids and phosphoric acids, and removing the soaps thus formed. Suitable alkaline materials include sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide, calcium carbonate and ammonium hydroxide. This process is typically carried out at room temperature and removes the free fatty acid fraction. Soap is removed by centrifugation or by extraction into a solvent for the soap, and the neutralised oil is washed with water. If required, any excess alkali in the oil may be neutralized with a suitable acid such as hydrochloric acid or sulphuric acid.

Bleaching

Bleaching is a refining process in which oils are heated at 90-120° C. for 10-30 minutes in the presence of a bleaching earth (0.2-2.0%) and in the absence of oxygen by operating with nitrogen or steam or in a vacuum. This step in oil processing is designed to remove unwanted pigments (carotenoids, chlorophyll, gossypol etc), and the process also removes oxidation products, trace metals, sulphur compounds and traces of soap.

Deodorization

Deodorization is a treatment of oils and fats at a high temperature (200-260° C.) and low pressure (0.1-1 mm Hg). This is typically achieved by introducing steam into the oil at a rate of about 0.1 ml/minute/100 ml of oil. After about 30 minutes of sparging, the oil is allowed to cool under vacuum. The oil is typically transferred to a glass container and flushed with argon before being stored under refrigeration. This treatment improves the colour of the oil and removes a majority of the volatile substances or odorous compounds including any remaining free fatty acids, monoacylglycerols and oxidation products.

Winterisation

Winterization is a process sometimes used in commercial production of oils for the separation of oils and fats into solid (stearin) and liquid (olein) fractions by crystallization at sub-ambient temperatures. It was applied originally to cottonseed oil to produce a solid-free product. It is typically used to decrease the saturated fatty acid content of oils.

Transesterification

Transesterification is a process that exchanges the fatty acids within and between TAGs, initially by releasing fatty acids from the TAGs either as free fatty acids or as fatty acid esters, usually fatty acid ethyl esters. When combined with a fractionation process, transesterification can be used to modify the fatty acid composition of lipids (Marangoni et al., 1995). Transesterification can use either chemical or enzymatic means, the latter using lipases which may be position-specific (sn-1/3 or sn-2 specific) for the fatty acid on the TAG, or having a preference for some fatty acids over others (Speranza et al, 2012). The fatty acid fractionation to increase the concentration of LC-PUFA in an oil can be achieved by any of the methods known in the art, such as, for example, freezing crystallization, complex formation using urea, molecular distillation, supercritical fluid extraction and silver ion complexing. Complex formation with urea is a preferred method for its simplicity and efficiency in reducing the level of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids in the oil (Gamez et al., 2003). Initially, the TAGs of the oil are split into their constituent fatty acids, often in the form of fatty acid esters, by hydrolysis or by lipases and these free fatty acids or fatty acid esters are then mixed with an ethanolic solution of urea for complex formation. The saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids easily complex with urea and crystallize out on cooling and may subsequently be removed by filtration. The non-urea complexed fraction is thereby enriched with LC-PUFA.

Plant Biomass for the Production of Lipid

Parts of plants involved in photosynthesis (e.g., and stems and leaves of higher plants and aquatic plants such as algae) can also be used to produce lipid. Independent of the type of plant, there are several methods for extracting lipids from green biomass. One way is physical extraction, which often does not use solvent extraction. It is a “traditional” way using several different types of mechanical extraction. Expeller pressed extraction is a common type, as are the screw press and ram press extraction methods. The amount of lipid extracted using these methods varies widely, depending upon the plant material and the mechanical process employed. Mechanical extraction is typically less efficient than solvent extraction described below.

In solvent extraction, an organic solvent (e.g., hexane) is mixed with at least the genetically modified plant green biomass, preferably after the green biomass is dried and ground. Of course, other parts of the plant besides the green biomass (e.g., lipid-containing seeds) can be ground and mixed in as well. The solvent dissolves the lipid in the biomass and the like, which solution is then separated from the biomass by mechanical action (e.g., with the pressing processes above). This separation step can also be performed by filtration (e.g., with a filter press or similar device) or centrifugation etc. The organic solvent can then be separated from the non-polar lipid (e.g., by distillation). This second separation step yields non-polar lipid from the plant and can yield a re-usable solvent if one employs conventional vapor recovery.

Production of Algae

Algaculture is a form of aquaculture involving the farming of species of algae (including microalgae, also referred to as phytoplankton, microphytes, or planktonic algae, and macroalgae, commonly known as seaweed). Species of algae useful in the present invention include, for example, Chlamydomonas sp. (for example, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii), Dunaliella sp., Haematococcus sp., Chlorella sp., Thraustochytrium sp., Schizochytrium sp., and Volvox sp.

Mono or mixed algal cultures can be cultured in open-ponds (such as raceway-type ponds and lakes) or photobioreactors.

Algae can be harvested using microscreens, by centrifugation, by flocculation (using for example, chitosan, alum and ferric chloride) and by froth flotation. Interrupting the carbon dioxide supply can cause algae to flocculate on its own, which is called “autoflocculation”. In froth flotation, the cultivator aerates the water into a froth, and then skims the algae from the top. Ultrasound and other harvesting methods are currently under development.

Lipid may be separated from the algae by mechanical crushing. When algae is dried it retains its lipid content, which can then be “pressed” out with an oil press. Since different strains of algae vary widely in their physical attributes, various press configurations (screw, expeller, piston, etc.) work better for specific algae types.

Osmotic shock is sometimes used to release cellular components such as lipid from algae. Osmotic shock is a sudden reduction in osmotic pressure and can cause cells in a solution to rupture.

Ultrasonic extraction can accelerate extraction processes, in particular enzymatic extraction processes employed to extract lipid from algae. Ultrasonic waves are used to create cavitation bubbles in a solvent material. When these bubbles collapse near the cell walls, the resulting shock waves and liquid jets cause those cells walls to break and release their contents into a solvent.

Chemical solvents (for example, hexane, benzene, petroleum ether) are often used in the extraction of lipids from algae. Soxhlet extraction can be used to extract lipids from algae through repeated washing, or percolation, with an organic solvent under reflux in a special glassware.

Enzymatic extraction may be used to extract lipids from algae. Enzymatic extraction uses enzymes to degrade the cell walls with water acting as the solvent. The enzymatic extraction can be supported by ultrasonication.

Supercritical CO₂ can also be used as a solvent. In this method, CO₂ is liquefied under pressure and heated to the point that it becomes supercritical (having properties of both a liquid and a gas), allowing it to act as a solvent.

Fermentation Processes for Lipid Production

As used herein, the term the “fermentation process” refers to any fermentation process or any process comprising a fermentation step. A fermentation process includes, without limitation, fermentation processes used to produce alcohols (e.g., ethanol, methanol, butanol), organic acids (e.g., citric acid, acetic acid, itaconic acid, lactic acid, gluconic acid), ketones (e.g., acetone), amino acids (e.g., glutamic acid), gases (e.g., H₂ and CO₂), antibiotics (e.g., penicillin and tetracycline), enzymes, vitamins (e.g., riboflavin, beta-carotene), and hormones. Fermentation processes also include fermentation processes used in the consumable alcohol industry (e.g., beer and wine), dairy industry (e.g., fermented dairy products), leather industry and tobacco industry. Preferred fermentation processes include alcohol fermentation processes, as are well known in the art. Preferred fermentation processes are anaerobic fermentation processes, as are well known in the art. Suitable fermenting cells, typically microorganisms that are able to ferment, that is, convert, sugars such as glucose or maltose, directly or indirectly into the desired fermentation product. Examples of fermenting microorganisms include fungal organisms such as yeast, preferably an oleaginous organism. As used herein, an “oleaginous organism” is one which accumulates at least 25% of its dry weight as triglycerides. As used herein, “yeast” includes Saccharomyces spp., Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomyces carlbergensis, Candida spp., Kluveromyces spp., Pichia spp., Hansenula spp., Trichoderma spp., Lipomyces starkey, and Yarrowia lipolytica. Preferred yeast include Yarrowia lipolytica or other oleaginous yeasts and strains of the Saccharomyces spp., and in particular, Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The transgenic microorganism is preferably grown under conditions that optimize activity of CPFAS genes, fatty acid biosynthetic genes and acyltransferase genes. This leads to production of the greatest and the most economical yield of lipid. In general, media conditions that may be optimized include the type and amount of carbon source, the type and amount of nitrogen source, the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, the oxygen level, growth temperature, pH, length of the biomass production phase, length of the lipid accumulation phase and the time of cell harvest.

Fermentation media must contain a suitable carbon source. Suitable carbon sources may include, but are not limited to: monosaccharides (e.g., glucose, fructose), disaccharides (e.g., lactose, sucrose), oligosaccharides, polysaccharides (e.g., starch, cellulose or mixtures thereof), sugar alcohols (e.g., glycerol) or mixtures from renewable feedstocks (e.g., cheese whey permeate, cornsteep liquor, sugar beet molasses, barley malt). Additionally, carbon sources may include alkanes, fatty acids, esters of fatty acids, monoglycerides, diglycerides, triglycerides, phospholipids and various commercial sources of fatty acids including vegetable oils (e.g., soybean oil) and animal fats. Additionally, the carbon substrate may include one-carbon substrates (e.g., carbon dioxide, methanol, formaldehyde, formate, carbon-containing amines) for which metabolic conversion into key biochemical intermediates has been demonstrated. Hence it is contemplated that the source of carbon utilized in the present invention may encompass a wide variety of carbon-containing substrates and will only be limited by the choice of the host microorganism. Although all of the above mentioned carbon substrates and mixtures thereof are expected to be suitable in the present invention, preferred carbon substrates are sugars and/or fatty acids. Most preferred is glucose and/or fatty acids containing between 10-22 carbons.

Nitrogen may be supplied from an inorganic (e.g., (NH₄)₂SO₄) or organic source (e.g., urea, glutamate). In addition to appropriate carbon and nitrogen sources, the fermentation media may also contain suitable minerals, salts, cofactors, buffers, vitamins and other components known to those skilled in the art suitable for the growth of the microorganism and promotion of the enzymatic pathways necessary for lipid production.

A suitable pH range for the fermentation is typically between about pH 4.0 to pH 8.0, wherein pH 5.5 to pH 7.0 is preferred as the range for the initial growth conditions. The fermentation may be conducted under aerobic or anaerobic conditions, wherein microaerobic conditions are preferred.

Typically, accumulation of high levels of lipid in the cells of oleaginous microorganisms requires a two-stage process, since the metabolic state must be “balanced” between growth and synthesis/storage of fats. Thus, most preferably, a two-stage fermentation process is necessary for the production of lipids in microorganisms. In this approach, the first stage of the fermentation is dedicated to the generation and accumulation of cell mass and is characterized by rapid cell growth and cell division. In the second stage of the fermentation, it is preferable to establish conditions of nitrogen deprivation in the culture to promote high levels of lipid accumulation. The effect of this nitrogen deprivation is to reduce the effective concentration of AMP in the cells, thereby reducing the activity of the NAD-dependent isocitrate dehydrogenase of mitochondria. When this occurs, citric acid will accumulate, thus forming abundant pools of acetyl-CoA in the cytoplasm and priming fatty acid synthesis. Thus, this phase is characterized by the cessation of cell division followed by the synthesis of fatty acids and accumulation of TAGs.

Although cells are typically grown at about 30° C., some studies have shown increased synthesis of unsaturated fatty acids at lower temperatures. Based on process economics, this temperature shift should likely occur after the first phase of the two-stage fermentation, when the bulk of the microorganism's growth has occurred.

It is contemplated that a variety of fermentation process designs may be applied, where commercial production of lipids using the instant nucleic acids is desired. For example, commercial production of lipid from a recombinant microbial host may be produced by a batch, fed-batch or continuous fermentation process.

A batch fermentation process is a closed system wherein the media composition is set at the beginning of the process and not subject to further additions beyond those required for maintenance of pH and oxygen level during the process. Thus, at the beginning of the culturing process the media is inoculated with the desired organism and growth or metabolic activity is permitted to occur without adding additional substrates (i.e., carbon and nitrogen sources) to the medium. In batch processes the metabolite and biomass compositions of the system change constantly up to the time the culture is terminated. In a typical batch process, cells moderate through a static lag phase to a high-growth log phase and finally to a stationary phase, wherein the growth rate is diminished or halted. Left untreated, cells in the stationary phase will eventually die. A variation of the standard batch process is the fed-batch process, wherein the substrate is continually added to the fermentor over the course of the fermentation process. A fed-batch process is also suitable in the present invention. Fed-batch processes are useful when catabolite repression is apt to inhibit the metabolism of the cells or where it is desirable to have limited amounts of substrate in the media at any one time. Measurement of the substrate concentration in fed-batch systems is difficult and therefore may be estimated on the basis of the changes of measurable factors such as pH, dissolved oxygen and the partial pressure of waste gases (e.g., CO₂). Batch and fed-batch culturing methods are common and well known in the art and examples may be found in Brock, In Biotechnology: A Textbook of Industrial Microbiology, 2nd ed., Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Mass., (1989); or Deshpande and Mukund (1992).

Commercial production of lipid using the instant cells may also be accomplished by a continuous fermentation process, wherein a defined media is continuously added to a bioreactor while an equal amount of culture volume is removed simultaneously for product recovery. Continuous cultures generally maintain the cells in the log phase of growth at a constant cell density. Continuous or semi-continuous culture methods permit the modulation of one factor or any number of factors that affect cell growth or end product concentration. For example, one approach may limit the carbon source and allow all other parameters to moderate metabolism. In other systems, a number of factors affecting growth may be altered continuously while the cell concentration, measured by media turbidity, is kept constant. Continuous systems strive to maintain steady state growth and thus the cell growth rate must be balanced against cell loss due to media being drawn off the culture. Methods of modulating nutrients and growth factors for continuous culture processes, as well as techniques for maximizing the rate of product formation, are well known in the art of industrial microbiology and a variety of methods are detailed by Brock, supra.

Fatty acids, including PUFAs, may be found in the host microorganism as free fatty acids or in esterified forms such as acylglycerols, phospholipids, sulfolipids or glycolipids, and may be extracted from the host cell through a variety of means well-known in the art.

In general, means for the purification of fatty acids, including PUFAs, may include extraction with organic solvents, sonication, supercritical fluid extraction (e.g., using carbon dioxide), saponification and physical means such as presses, or combinations thereof. Of particular interest is extraction with methanol and chloroform in the presence of water (Bligh and Dyer, 1959). Where desirable, the aqueous layer can be acidified to protonate negatively-charged moieties and thereby increase partitioning of desired products into the organic layer. After extraction, the organic solvents can be removed by evaporation under a stream of nitrogen. When isolated in conjugated forms, the products may be enzymatically or chemically cleaved to release the free fatty acid or a less complex conjugate of interest, and can then be subject to further manipulations to produce a desired end product. Desirably, conjugated forms of fatty acids are cleaved with potassium hydroxide.

If further purification is necessary, standard methods can be employed. Such methods may include extraction, treatment with urea, fractional crystallization, HPLC, fractional distillation, silica gel chromatography, high-speed centrifugation or distillation, or combinations of these techniques. Protection of reactive groups such as the acid or alkenyl groups, may be done at any step through known techniques (e.g., alkylation, iodination). Methods used include methylation of the fatty acids to produce methyl esters. Similarly, protecting groups may be removed at any step. Desirably, purification of fractions containing GLA, STA, ARA, DHA and EPA may be accomplished by treatment with urea and/or fractional distillation.

EXAMPLES Example 1 General Materials and Methods

Expression of Genes in Plant Cells in a Transient Expression System

Genes were expressed in plant cells using a transient expression system essentially as described by Voinnet et al. (2003) and Wood et al. (2009). Chimeric binary vectors, 35S:p19 and 35S:V2, for expression of the p19 and V2 viral silencing suppressors, respectively, were separately introduced into Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain GV3101:mp90. All other binary vectors containing a coding region to be expressed by a promoter, such as the strong constitutive CaMV 35S promoter, were introduced into Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain AGL1. The recombinant cells were grown to stationary phase at 28° C. in LB broth supplemented with 50 mg/L rifampicin and either 50 mg/L kanamycin or 80 mg/L spectinomycin according to the selectable marker gene on the binary vector. Acetosyringone (100 μM) was added to the bacterial cultures and growth continued a further 2 hours for the induction of virulence factors. The bacteria were pelleted by centrifugation at 3000 g for 5 min at room temperature before being resuspended to OD600=2.0 in infiltration buffer containing 10 mM MES pH 5.7, 10 mM MgCl₂ and 100 μM acetosyringone. The cells were then incubated at 28° C. with shaking for another 30 minutes and a volume of each culture required to reach a final concentration of OD600=0.3 added to a fresh tube. Mixed cultures comprising genes to be expressed included either of the 35S:p19 or 35S:V2 constructs in Agrobacterium unless otherwise stated. The final volume was made up with the infiltration buffer.

Leaves were then infiltrated with the culture mixture and the plants were typically grown for a further three to five days after infiltration before leaf discs were recovered for total lipid isolation. Time courses of GFP expression were conducted on the intact leaves from the first day after infiltration through to 7 days post-infiltration (dpi). N. benthamiana plants were grown in growth cabinets under a constant 24° C. with a 14/10 light/dark cycle with a light intensity of approximately 200 lux using Osram ‘Soft White’ fluorescent lighting placed directly over plants. Typically, 6 week old plants were used for experiments and true leaves that were nearly fully-expanded were infiltrated. All non-infiltrated leaves were removed by post infiltration to avoid shading.

Lipid Analysis

Total Lipid Isolation and Fractionation

Tissue samples were freeze-dried, weighed and total lipids extracted from samples of approximately 30 mg dry weight as described by Bligh and Dyer (1959). When required, TAG fractions were separated from other lipid components using a 2-phase thin-layer chromatography (TLC) system on pre-coated silica gel plates (Silica gel 60, Merck). An extracted lipid sample equivalent to 10 mg dry weight of leaf tissue was chromatographed in a first phase with hexane/diethyl ether (98/2 v/v) to remove non-polar waxes and then in a second phase using hexane/diethyl ether/acetic acid (70/30/1 v/v/v). When required, polar lipids were separated from non-polar lipids in lipid samples extracted from an equivalent of 5 mg dry weight of leaves using two-dimensional TLC (Silica gel 60, Merck), using chloroform/methanol/water (65/25/4 v/v/v) for the first direction and chloroform/methanol/NH₄OH/ethylpropylamine (130/70/10/1 v/v/v/v) for the second direction. The lipid spots, and appropriate standards run on the same TLC plates, were visualized by brief exposure to iodine vapour, collected into vials and transmethylated to produce FAME for GC analysis as follows.

Conversion of Fatty Acids to FAMEs

For total lipid analysis, with the exception of the analysis of DHS content, lipid extracted from an equivalent of 10 mg of dry weight leaf material was transmethylated using a solution of methanol/HCl/dichloromethane (10/1/1 v/v/v) at 80° C. for 2 hr to produce fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). For analysis of DHS in leaves, samples were transmethylated using the same reagents but with milder conditions, namely for 10 mins at 50° C., using DHS (Larodan Chemicals) as a calibration standard. The FAME were extracted into hexane, concentrated to near dryness under a stream of N₂ gas and quickly reconstituted in hexane prior to analysis by GC.

DHS and eDHS were determined in total lipid samples by the following method. Samples were directly treated with 0.1M sodium methoxide in methanol/chloroform (10:1) in a sealed test tube with heating at 90° C. for 60 mins to convert lipids to FAMEs. When cool, the solution was slightly acidified to pH 6-7 with acetic acid. Saline and hexane/chloroform (4:1 v/v) were added with vigorous shaking, and the hexane/chloroform layer containing FAMEs was transferred to a vial for analysis.

Capillary Gas-Liquid Chromatography (GC)

FAMEs were analysed by gas chromatography (GC) using an Agilent Technologies 6890N gas chromatograph (Palo Alto, Calif., USA) equipped with an Equity™-1 fused silica capillary column (15 m×0.1 mm i.d., 0.1 μm film thickness), an FID, a split/splitless injector and an Agilent Technologies 7683 Series auto sampler and injector. Helium was used as the carrier gas. Samples were injected in splitless mode at an oven temperature of 120° C. After injection, the oven temperature was raised to 201° C. at 10° C. min⁻¹ and then to 270° C. at 5° C. min⁻¹ and held for 20 min. Peaks were quantified with Agilent Technologies ChemStation software (Rev B.03.01 (317), Palo Alto, Calif., USA). Peak responses were similar for the fatty acids of authentic Nu-Check GLC standard-411 (Nu-Check Prep Inc, MN, USA) which contained equal proportions of 31 different fatty acid methyl esters, including 18:1, 18:0, 20:0 and 22:0. Slight variations of peak responses among peaks were balanced by multiplying the peak areas by normalization factors of each peak. The proportion of each fatty acid in total fatty acids of samples was calculated on the basis of individual and total peaks areas for the fatty acids.

Analysis of FAMEs by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

Analysis of FAMEs by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) was conducted using a Varian 3800 equipped with a BPX70 capillary column (length 30 m, i.d. 0.32 mm, film thickness 0.25 Phenomenex). Injections were made in the split mode using helium as the carrier gas and an initial column temperature of 60° C. raised at 20° C. min⁻¹ until 180° C., then raised at 2.5° C. min⁻¹ until 190° C., then raised at 25° C. min⁻¹ until 260° C. and held for 2.2 min. Mass spectra were acquired under positive electron impact in full scan mode between 40-400 amu at the rate of 2 scans per second using a Varian 1200 Single Quadrupole mass spectrometer. The mass spectra corresponding to each peak in the chromatogram was automatically compared with spectra of pure standards. Test spectra that matched standard spectra with a high degree of accuracy and eluted at the same time as an authentic standard or eluted at a plausible retention time, were identified. FAMEs were quantified by peak area integration using Varian software and assuming equivalent MS response factors on a weight basis.

Quantification of TAG Via Iatroscan

One μl of each leaf extract was loaded on one Chromarod-SII for TLC-FID Iatroscan™ (Mitsubishi Chemical Medience Corporation—Japan). The Chromarod rack was then transferred into an equilibrated developing tank containing 70 ml of a Hexane/CHCl₃/2-Propanol/Formic acid (85/10.716/0.567/0.0567 v/v/v/v) solvent system. After 30 min of incubation, the Chromarod rack was then dried for 3 min at 100° C. and immediately scanned on an Iatroscan MK-6s TLC-FID analyser (Mitsubishi Chemical Medience Corporation—Japan). Peak areas of DAGE internal standard and TAG were integrated using SIC-480II integration software (Version:7.0-E SIC System instruments Co., LTD—Japan).

TAG quantification was carried out in two steps. First, DAGE was scanned in all samples to correct the extraction yields after which concentrated TAG samples were selected and diluted. Next, TAG was quantified in diluted samples with a second scan according to the external calibration using glyceryl trilinoleate as external standard (Sigma-Aldrich).

Transformation of Arabidopsis thaliana

Chimeric vectors comprising genes to be used to transform Arabidopsis were introduced into A. tumefaciens strain AGL1 and cells from culture of the transformed Agrobacterium used to treat A. thaliana (ecotype Columbia) plants using the floral dip method for transformation (Clough and Bent, 1998).

Example 2 V2 Protein Acts as a Silencing Suppressor in Transient Assays

Construction of Chimeric Genes for Expression of Silencing Suppressors p19 or V2

The p19 protein from Tomato Bushy Stunt Virus (TBSV) (SEQ ID NO: 2) and the V2 protein from Tomato Yellow Leaf Roll Virus (TYLRV) (SEQ ID NO: 1) have been characterised as viral suppressor proteins (VSP), functioning as silencing suppressors (Voinnet et al., 2003; Glick et al., 2008). p19 binds to 21 nucleotide long siRNAs before they guide Argonaute-guided cleavage of homologous RNA (Ye et al., 2003). V2 is an another silencing suppressor that disrupts the function of the plant protein SGS3, a protein thought to be involved in the production of double stranded RNA intermediates from ssRNA substrates (Elmayan et al., 1998; Mourrain et al., 2000; Beclin et al., 2002) either by directly binding to SGS3 (Glick et al., 2008) or by binding dsRNA intermediates that contain a 5′ overhang structure and competitively excluding SGS3 from binding these intermediates (Fukunaga and Doudna, 2009).

A DNA sequence encoding p19 (SEQ ID NO: 4), based on the genome sequence of the Tomato Bushy Stunt Virus (Hillman et al., 1989) was chemically synthesised, including an NcoI site spanning the translation start ATG codon. The DNA sequence was amplified by PCR and inserted into the pENTR/D-TOPO vector (Invitrogen), producing a plasmid designated pCW087 (pENTR-p19). Gateway LR clonase reactions were then used to introduce the p19 coding sequence into plant binary vectors under the control of either the CaMV35S promoter, generating a construct designated pCW195 (35S-p19), or the truncated napin promoter FP1, generating pCW082 (FP1-p19). In addition, the entire FP1-p19-ocs3′ expression cassette from pCW082 was PCR amplified with SacI flanking sites and ligated into pCW141, a plant expression vector having a FP1-GFP gene as a screenable/selectable seed marker, thus generating a plasmid designated pCW164 (FP1-p19 and FP1-GFP). The presence of the FP1-GFP gene allowed the non-destructive identification and selection of transformed T1 seeds in mixed null/T1 populations that resulted from the dipping techniques used to transform Arabidopsis.

A DNA sequence encoding V2 (SEQ ID NO: 3), based on the Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus genome sequence (Glick et al., 2008), was chemically synthesised, included flanking NotI and AscI restriction sites to allow direct cloning into the pENTR/D-TOPO vector (Invitrogen), generating a plasmid designated pCW192 (pENTR-V2). Gateway LR clonase reactions were used to introduce the V2 gene into plant binary vectors under the control of the 35S promoter (pCW197; 35S-V2) or for seed-specific expression under the control of the truncated napin promoter, FP1 (pCW195; FP1-V2).

The vector pUQ214 described in Brosnan et al. (2007) and comprising a 35S-GFP gene, was used as an example of a target gene, expressing GFP under the control of the 35S promoter. This binary vector included a kanamycin resistance marker gene that can be used for selection of transformed cells in plants if desired.

Function of the Suppressors in Plant Cells

In order to confirm the function of the V2 and p19 proteins as suppressors of silencing and therefore increasing transgene expression, Agrobacterium cells containing either of the 35S-driven VSP constructs were co-infiltrated together with Agrobacterium cells containing pUQ214 into Nicotiana benthamiana leaves as follows. Transformants of Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains separately harbouring each binary vector were grown overnight at 28° C. in LB broth supplemented with antibiotics (50 mg/L kanamycin or 80 mg/L spectinomycin, dependent on the selectable marker gene used) and rifampicin. Turbid cultures were supplemented with 100 μM acetosyringone and grown for a further 2 hours. Cultures were centrifuged (4000×g for 5 min at room temperature) to harvest the cells and the cell pellets gently resuspended in infiltration buffer (5 mM MES, 5 mM MgSO₄, pH 5.7, 100 μM acetosyringone) to an optical density of about 2.0. Cell suspensions for infiltration were prepared, combining different transformants as required, so that each Agrobacterium strain was present at an OD_(600nm) of 0.3. The cell suspensions were infiltrated into the underside of fully-expanded leaves of 5-6 week old N. benthamiana plants using a 1 mL syringe without a needle, using gentle pressure. By these means, the cell suspensions entered primarily through the stomates and infiltrated the mesophyll cell layer of the leaves. Infiltrated areas of leaves, indicated by the water-soaked region and commonly 3 to 4 cm in diameter, were circled by a permanent marker. Plants were housed in a 24° C. plant growth room with 14:10 light:dark cycle, where the light intensity was 400-500 μEinsteins·m⁻²·s⁻¹ at the leaf surface provided by overhead fluorescent lighting (Philips TLD 35S/865 ‘Cold Daylight’). Under these conditions, the Agrobacteria efficiently transferred the T-DNAs into the N. benthamiana cells.

GFP expression in the leaves was measured daily from 1-7 days after the infiltrations by measuring the fluoresence under UV light. GFP images were captured on a digital SLR (Nikon D60; 55-200 mm lens) using the NightSea fluorescent light and filter set (NightSea, Bedford, Mass., USA). Infiltrated leaves were generally left on the plant and were photographed every day from 2-7 days post infiltration, thereby a time-course of GFP expression could be determined for the same set of infiltrations. Representative fluorescence photographs are shown in FIG. 1.

The 35S:GFP construct introduced in the absence of a VSP produced a relatively low level of fluorescence, indicative of GFP expression, peaking after 2-3 days and reducing thereafter. In contrast, when the GFP construct was co-infiltrated with either the p19 or the V2 suppressor constructs, both the intensity and duration of fluorescence were greatly increased, extending to and maintained beyond more than 7 days post infiltration. These observations indicated enhanced expression of the 35S:GFP gene in the leaf assays in the presence of the VSPs, and confirmed their function as potent suppressor proteins that inhibited the endogenous co-suppression pathways in the plant cells.

Measurement of GFP Expression by Western Blot Analysis

GFP expression was also analysed by Western blot using a GFP specific antibody as follows. 1 cm² leaf samples were removed from the infiltrated zones and subjected to denaturing protein extraction, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE; 12% gel) and blotting to PVDF membrane essentially as described (Helliwell et al., 2006). GFP protein was detected using an anti-GFP monoclonal antibody (1:10000 dilution, Clontech) and goat anti-mouse HRP (1:5000 dilution, Promega) according to the suppliers instructions. Coomassie blue staining of high molecular proteins remaining in gels after the transfer to PVDF membranes was used to confirm equal protein loading between samples. Protein size was determined using the Pre-Stained PageRuler Protein Ladder (MBI-Fermentas P7711S).

The results of the Western blot analyses confirmed the fluorescence data, confirming the function of both p19 and V2 as silencing suppressors (FIG. 2).

Example 3 RNAi Gene Silencing can Occur Simultaneously with Silencing Suppression

Hairpin RNAi Constructs Targeting GFP

A binary construct pUQ218 (Brosnan et al., 2007), containing both a 35S-GFP gene and a 35S-hairpin encoding region targeted against GFP and within the same T-DNA region, was used when experiments used both GFP expression and simultaneous GFP silencing activities in the same cell. The hairpin RNA comprised the first 380 bp of the GFP coding sequence, corresponding to nucleotides 1 to 380 of Accession No. U43284. A hpGFP binary construct without the 35S-GFP gene was generated by removing the 35S-GFP component via a NheI-AvrII digestion/religation reaction, creating pCW445 (35S-hpGFP).

Co-Expression of Silencing Suppressors and Silencing Constructs with Transgene Expression

The VSPs, V2 and p19, were compared in combination with GFP expression from the 35S-GFP gene and a hairpin targeting GFP (hpGFP) to silence the 35S-GFP gene, using transient assays by infiltration of the genes from Agrobacterium into N. benthamiana leaves. These were compared to control infiltrations without the hpGFP, into adjacent spots on the same leaf at the same time, to determine expression levels in the absence of the hairpin RNA. FIG. 1, panel B, shows representative photographs of the fluorescence observed from 2 to 7 days post infiltration. The combination of pCW195 (35S-p19) and pUQ218 (containing both GFP and hpGFP) resulted in high levels of GFP expression, indicating that p19 effectively suppressed silencing by the hairpin RNA of the GFP transgene. In contrast, combinations of V2, 35S-GFP and hpGFP resulted in a near-total silencing of GFP. Complete silencing of GFP was achieved with hpGFP in the absence of any VSP.

Experiments using pUQ218 generated equivalent results for GFP expression compared to the combination of separate vectors pUQ214 (35S-GFP) and pCW557 (35S-hpGFP). This indicated that the hairpin RNA construct was efficiently introduced into cells via Agrobacterium in the experiments described above, and that it was not necessary to link the target gene and the silencing gene on a single construct in the transient leaf assays.

Western blots of GFP protein levels (FIG. 2) using a specific antibody as in Example 2 confirmed that the co-introduction of p19 suppressed the silencing activity of hpGFP, thereby allowing strong GFP expression. In contrast, only a low level of GFP expression was detected when the combination of V2, GFP and hpGFP was introduced. This great difference between p19 and V2 with respect to suppressing the function of a hairpin RNA indicated that V2 may allow strong over-expression of transgenes simultaneously with hairpin-based RNAi strategies in the same cell.

Example 4 Silencing of an Endogenous Gene in the Presence of Silencing Suppressors

In order to test whether an endogenous gene could be silenced simultaneously with expression of a silencing suppressor, a hairpin RNA construct was designed and made which would silence a FAD2 gene in N. benthamiana plants (NbFAD2) (SEQ ID NO: 11). FAD2 is a membrane-bound enzyme located on the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) which desaturates 18:1 esterified on phosphatidylcholine (18:1-PC) to form 18:2-PC. Activity of FAD2 can readily be assayed by analysing the fatty acid composition of lipid in the plant tissues and determining the ratio of 18:1 (oleic acid) to 18:2 (linoleic acid) in the total fatty acid. FAD2 is active in leaves of N. benthamiana as in other plants, resulting in low levels of 18:1-PC in the leaves. As 18:1-PC is an important metabolite for a range of alternative fatty acids metabolic pathways, a chimeric gene was made which included an inverted repeat of a 660 basepair region of NbFAD2 (SEQ ID NO: 12), corresponding to central portion of the endogenous 1151 bp transcript, to silence NbFAD2 as follows.

Construction of Hairpin Construct Targeting NbFAD2

A 660 bp fragment of NbFAD2 was generated by RT-PCR from leaf total RNA using primers designed against conserved regions of a Nicotianum tabacum FAD2 sequence in the Solgenomics database (SGN-U427167), namely forward primer NbFAD2F1 5′-TCATTGCGCACGAATGTGGCCACCAT-3′ (+451 bp co-ordinates) (SEQ ID NO: 13) and reverse primer NbFAD2R1 5′-CGAGAACAGATGGTGCACGACG-3′ (+1112 bp co-ordinates) (SEQ ID NO: 14). Total RNA was isolated from young N. benthamiana leaves using a Trizol-based method (Invitrogen and associated literature). A Platinum Taq One-Step RT-PCR reaction (Invitrogen) was performed using the cycling conditions of 50° C. (10 min), 94° C. (2 min) and 30 cycles of 50° C. (30 s)/72° C. (60 s)/92° C. (30s) and a final 72° C. (2 min). The NbFAD2 gene fragment was subsequently ligated into pENTR11 and recombined using standard Gateway procedures into the pHellsgate8 vector (Helliwell et al., 2002) to generate the plasmid designated pFN033. This construct had an inverted repeat of the 660 bp fragment under the control of the 35S promoter, thereby producing, upon transcription, a RNA hairpin directed against NbFAD2, hereafter named hpNbFAD2.

hpNbFAD2 was transformed into Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain AGL1 and infiltrated into N. benthamiana leaves in combination with Agrobacteria containing the 35S:V2 or 35S:p19 constructs. Five days post infiltration, infiltrated zones from leaves were sampled, total lipid extracted and the PC fraction analysed. The fatty acid analysis of the PC fraction of leaves infiltrated with combinations of hpNbFAD2 and V2 showed a substantial increase in the 18:1-PC content from 9% 18:1-PC to 39% 18:1-PC (FIG. 3). These percentages were based on the observed amounts of 18:1, 18:2 and 18:3 found on the PC fraction and expressed as a percentage of the sum of these three fatty acids. In comparison, the combination of p19 and hpNbFAD2 resulted in partial silencing of FAD2 activity, reflected in an increase from 8% 18:1-PC to 25% 18:1-PC, a result indicating that hpNbFAD2 could silence the endogenous FAD2 gene to a moderate extent in the presence of co-expression of p19. Previous work has shown that leaf cells infiltrated with a combination of Agrobacteria strains, each containing a separate vector, received at least one or more copies of T-DNA from each vector (Wood et al., 2009). This gave us confidence that the great majority of cells in the leaf assays described above had received and expressed both the hairpin and the suppressor encoding genes.

The increase in 18:1-PC levels was reflected in a reduction in the 18:2-PC content in the cells. In contrast, the 18:3-PC levels nearly the same, presumably due to the large amount of 18:3 generated in the FAD2-independent pathways found in the chloroplasts of leaves.

To establish that the suppressor and hairpin constructs were introduced into the same cells efficiently, constructs were also made and tested which co-located the genes within the same T-DNA constructs, thus generating single T-DNAs with 35S-p19+35S-hpNbFAD2 and 35S-V2+35S-NbFAD2 gene combinations. The entire 35S-p19-ocs3′ region of pCW 194 was PCR amplified using the primers including MluI flanking sites, (underlined) namely Forward primer 5′ aacgcgttcgacgaattaattccaatcccaca-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 15) and the OCS'3 Reverse primer 5′-ACGCGTCTGCTGAGCCTCGACATGTT-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 16). The amplified fragment was ligated into the unique MluI site within pFN033 to create pCW701, containing 35S-p19+35S-hpNbFAD2. Using the same primers, the entire 35S-V2-ocs3′ region of pCW197 was PCR amplified and this amplicon was ligated into the unique MluI site of pFN033 to create pCW702, containing 35S-p19+35S-hpNbFAD2. These vectors having the suppressor and hairpin encoding genes located within the same T-DNA region were transformed into Agrobacterium strain AGL1 and infiltrated into N. benthamiana leaves as before. Leaf tissues were sampled 5 dpi and the PC lipid fractions analysed for the 18:1, 18:2 and 18:3 levels. The results were indistinguishable compared to the results obtained using genes introduced on separate vectors, the inventors concluded that essentially all of the transformable leaf cells in transient leaf assays received at least one copy of each T-DNA in the infiltration mixtures.

Simultaneous Silencing of One Gene while Overexpressing a Second Gene

To test whether additional genes could be over-expressed with the aid of a silencing suppressor while silencing the endogenous FAD2 gene, additional constructs were made for over-expression of genes encoding DGAT1 and oleosin in plant cells. All plant cells possess active lipid pathways producing lipid classes such as DAG and acyl-CoA (Ohlrogge and Browse, 1995), however the esterification of these substrates via DGAT to produce TAG only occurs at significant levels in specialised organs, such oilseeds and pollen. The ectopic expression of AtDGAT1 in leaves has been shown to generate increased levels of oils (Bouvier-Nave et al., 2000). Previous studies have also shown that AtDGAT1 has some substrate specificity for 18:1 and its elongation product, 20:1 (Katavic et al., 1995). Oleosins are amphipathic proteins whose properties position these proteins on oil/hydrophilic interfaces, thereby creating a coating surrounding oil droplets and forming so called ‘oil bodies’ in oil-generating tissues (Tzen et al., 1992). ‘Oil bodies’ are considered a long term storage organelle as the oleosin layer protects the TAG from catabolic processes such as TAG lipases. Seeds of Arabidopsis mutants lacking a functional oleosin, ole1, have significantly reduced 18:1 contents and this 18:1 content was restored upon ectopic expression of an oleosin encoding gene from sesame (Scott et al., 2010).

Synthesis and Use of Constructs to Overexpress DGAT1 and Oleosin

The coding region of the AtDGAT1 gene (SEQ ID NO: 10) was cloned from Arabidopsis Col-0 mRNA collected from developing embryos using primers based on the Accession No. NG_127503. The amplicon was cloned into pENTR11 (Invitrogen) and recombined via an LR clonase reaction into a 35S binary expression vector to create 35S-AtDGAT1. The oleosin construct was used as described by Scott et al. (2010). This construct had a 35S promoter driving an oleosin coding region (SEQ ID NO: 6) isolated from sesame, encoding the protein with the amino acid sequence of Accession No AF091840 (SEQ ID NO: 5), generating the construct designated 35S-Oleosin.

Combinations of Agrobacterial strains separately containing vectors for transfer of genes encoding DGAT1, oleosin and p19 or V2 and in addition hpNbFAD2 were tested in N. benthamiana leaves and the oil content and fatty acid composition in the infiltrated tissues were analysed. Leaf samples were removed 5 dpi and freeze dried overnight. Lipids were extracted from samples of about 30 mg dry weight using the method of Bligh and Dyer (1959). TAGs in the extracted lipids were separated from polar lipids using a 2-phase TLC system on pre-coated silica gel plates (Silica gel 60, Merck). A lipid sample equivalent to 10 mg dry weight of leaf tissue was first run with hexane/diethyl ether (98/2 by vol.) to remove very non-polar waxes and a second phase was run using hexane/diethyl ether/acetic acid (70/30/1 by vol.). The lipid spots, and appropriate standards, were visualized by brief exposures to iodine vapour, collected into vials and transmethylated to produce FAME for GC analysis as described in Example 1. The data are shown in FIG. 4.

Leaves infiltrated with the genes encoding V2 and both DGAT1 and Oleosin had an approximately 5 to 6 fold increase in the TAG content. Moreover, there was a doubling of the 18:1 level calculated as a percentage of the total fatty acids in the TAG fraction, indicating that the combination of these two genes in the presence of the silencing suppressor enhanced the formation (synthesis and accumulation) of leaf oils with increased levels of oleic acid. The further addition of the silencing construct hpNbFAD2 increased the 18:1 level in the leaf oil to either 44% when using V2 or to 35% using p19 as the VSP. This assay configuration confirmed that both V2 and p19 allowed over-expression of transgenes, e.g. encoding AtDGAT1 and Oleosin. Although both silencing suppressors allowed effective simultaneous endogenous FAD2 silencing, use of V2 provided a greater extent of silencing than p19. From the efficiency of the 18:1 accumulation in TAGs, these observations were consistent with the conclusion above that over-expression of the transgenes aided by the VSPs was occurring simultaneously in the same cells as the FAD2 silencing.

In a further experiment to demonstrate that additional genes could be over-expressed with the aid of a silencing suppressor while simultaneously reducing expression of a second gene with a hairpin RNA, a construct was made to express a FAE1 enzyme (SEQ ID NO: 7). FAE1 is an enzyme that elongates saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids esterified to CoA by adding 2 carbons to the acyl chain at the carboxyl end of the fatty acid molecule (James et al., 1995). Previous studies have shown that ectopic expression of AtFAE1 resulted in production of a range of new elongated fatty acids, including a series of so-called very-long chain fatty acids (VLCFA) due to the sequential activity of AtFAE1 in cycles of elongation. The enzyme uses acyl-CoA substrates (Millar et al., 1998).

Synthesis of Construct to Express FAE1

The coding region of AtFAE1, TAIR Accession number 2139599, was chemically synthesised, subcloned into pGEMT-Easy and subcloned via the EcoRI flanking sites into the pENTR cloning vector, pCW306, to include the AUL1 and AttL2 sites, to generate pCW327. A catalase-1 intron, from the castor bean catalase-1 gene, was ligated into the unique NotI site just upstream of the AtFAE1 ORF to generate pCW465, pENTR-intron-AtFAE1. LR clonase reactions were used to recombine the intron-AtFAE1 fragment (SEQ ID NO: 8) into a 35S expression vector, generating pCW483 (35S-intron-AtFAE1). pCW483 was transformed into Agrobacterium strain AGL1 and transiently expressed in N. benthamiana leaves as above in combination with the other genes. A range of new elongation products were found in leaves expressing AtFAE1, including a significant number of VLCFA such as 20:1 (FIG. 11). Based on the known substrate specificity of AtFAE1, the inventors reasoned that 18:1-CoA would be a preferred substrate for AtFAE1, however this substrate would only be found in wild-type leaves at low levels due to the activity of NbFAD2. The inventors therefore combined the over-expression of AtFAE1 with hairpin based silencing of NbFAD2 in the presence of the silencing suppressor V2.

These experiments demonstrated that silencing suppressors such as V2 allowed over-expression of transgenes and the simultaneous silencing of endogenous genes in the same cell, and allowed an optimised substrate pool to be formed for metabolic engineering of fatty acids, e.g. 20:1 and other VLCFA.

Example 5 Small RNA Analysis of Hairpin-Based Silencing of an Endogen

Hairpin-based RNAi constructs are known to generate populations of small RNAs homologous to the hairpin, generally known as primary sRNA molecules. These primary sRNAs can trigger the production of secondary sRNAs that are homologous to regions in the target RNA outside of the hairpin-targeted region. Such sRNAs are mostly 21, 22 or 24 nucleotides in length, reflecting their biogenesis via a several pathways using different Dicer proteins. Each length may have specific functions in transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) and post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS). With the availability of deep sequencing technologies, the inventors investigated the small RNA populations arising from hairpin-based gene silencing of the endogenous NbFAD2 gene by the hpNbFAD2 in the transient assays, as above.

Cloning of Full-Length Open-Reading Frame of the NbFAD2 Gene

First of all, the full length open reading frame of the FAD2 gene from N. benthamiana was sequenced as follows. Genomic DNA was isolated from 20 g fresh weight of N. benthamiana leaves using a method that reduced chloroplastic and mitochondrial DNA contamination (Peterson et al., 1997). High molecular weight DNA was randomly sheared into fragments of approximately 500 bp and ligated with TruSeq library adaptors to generate a gDNA library. This library was sequenced on the HiSeq2000 platform on a complete flowcell. High quality sequences were retained to generate an alignment against the 660 bp hpNbFAD2 fragment (pFN033) using BowTie software. The full-length coding region of NbFAD2 was subsequently cloned via high fidelity PCR using primers Forward 5′-TTTATGGGAGCTGGTGGTAATATGT-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 17) and Reverse 5′-CCCTCAGAATTTGTTTTTGTACCAGAAA-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 18) (start and stop codons underlined) and sequence verified using BigDye3.1 sequencing techniques.

Small RNA Analysis

Deep sequencing methods were then used to analyse the populations of sRNA generated from the hairpin RNAi silencing construct, hpNbFAD2, in leaves co-infiltrated with the construct encoding V2. Total RNA was isolated from leaves 5 dpi using Trizol reagent (Invitrogen) according to the suppliers instructions. Small RNAs (15-40 nt size range) were purified via gel electrophoresis and analysed on an Illumina GAxII machine according to the manufacturers protocols.

Small RNAs having a sequence with identity to the NbFAD2 gene were identified and collated. The observed predominant sRNA size classes (20-24 nt) showed a non-uniform distribution across both the forward and reverse strands of the 660 bp target sequence (FIG. 8). Alignments of the small RNA reads against the full-length NbFAD2 open-reading frame sequence indicated that all of the observed sRNAs with homology to NbFAD2 had identity with the region used to generate the hairpin construct, none to the non-targeted regions. Therefore, the inventors concluded that the combination of the V2 silencing suppressor and hpNbFAD2 did not generate secondary sRNAs at an observable frequency. The absolute numbers of sRNA size classes showed that 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 nt sRNA represented 10%, 44%, 36%, 4% and 10% of all sRNA, respectively (FIG. 9). This result confirmed that hairpins generated primary sRNAs against an endogenous gene and not secondary sRNAs, although an influence of the V2 suppressor in this result cannot be excluded.

Example 6 Engineering a Transgenic Pathway for the Synthesis of Cyclopropanated Fatty Acids in Leaf Tissue

Oleic acid on the PC fraction is also the starting point for alternative metabolic pathways, and therefore an alternative metabolic pathway which uses oleic acid as a substrate was investigated as a system to compare different VSP activities in transient leaf assays. Dihydrosterculic acid (DHS) was chosen as the desired product from oleic acid. DHS is a cyclopropanated fatty acid that is produced by cyclopropane fatty acid synthetases (CPFAS) using 18:1-PC as a substrate (FIG. 5). Two different CPFAS genes were compared (FIG. 6) for their activity in leaf assays to produce DHS, namely the Escherichia coli CPFAS (EcCPFAS) (SEQ ID NO: 52) and the C-terminal domain of the cotton CPFAS (SEQ ID NO: 21), hereinafter termed GhCPFAS*, using leaf assays in combination with genes encoding V2, hpNbFAD2, DGAT1 and Oleosin.

Construction of Genes to Over-Express EcCPFAS and GhCPFAS* for Transient Expression in Leaves and Seeds

A DNA sequence encoding an Escherichia coli CPFAS enzyme was chemically synthesised, based on Accession No. AE000261.1 from nucleotide 6129 for a length of 1143 bp (SEQ ID NO: 60). The encoded protein had the same amino acid sequence as the E. coli protein, but the nucleotide sequence was codon optimised with a codon bias more suited to eukaryotic expression. The EcCPFAS-encoding fragment was cloned into the EcoRI site of pCW391, generating pCW392, a binary T-DNA construct useful for leaf assays (35S-EcCPFAS).

GhCPFAS*

The first plant CPFAS gene to be isolated and characterised in heterologous expression systems, namely SfCPFAS from Sterculia foetida, was found to possess a C-terminal portion of the enzyme with excellent homology to known bacterial CPFAS enzymes and an N-terminal region with motifs with homology to FAD-binding oxidases (Bao et al., 2002). A study has found that SfCPFAS is unusual and different to other plant fatty acid modifying enzymes by acting upon the 18:1 esterified to the sn1 position of phosphatidylcholine (PC) (Bao et al., 2003).

The cotton CPFAS-1 gene shows some homology to the SfCPFAS gene and the expression of full-length GhCPFAS-1 in tobacco BY2 cell cultures likewise resulted in about 1% DHS (Yu et al., 2011). The expression of full-length GhCPFAS-1 in seeds of fad2 fae1 mutant backgrounds of Arabidopsis, having elevated levels of oleic acid in seeds, also generated about 1% DHS (Yu et al., 2011). A comparison of the full-length GhCPFAS to produce DHS and a protein truncated by the first 409 amino acids, thus removing the FAD-binding oxidase domain, found that removal of the first 409 amino acids reduced DHS production in yeast by about 70% (Yu et al., 2011). Overall, these results indicated that plant CPFAS enzymes were capable of producing a low level of DHS in transgenic expression systems but that the first 409 amino acids were required for maximal activity. However, as described below the present inventors were surprised to find that in plant cells the truncated enzymes had enhanced CPFAS activity.

A DNA fragment encoding the C-terminal 469 amino acids of the full-length GhCPFAS-1 enzyme, starting at nucleotide position 1248 relative to the sequence in Accession No. AY574036 and using an internal in-frame ATG as the new start codon, was generated in RT-PCR reactions using total RNA isolated from cotton, to generate a nucleotide sequence encoding (SEQ ID NO: 37) the modified protein GhCPFAS* (SEQ ID NO: 21). The predicted length of the protein was 469 amino acids and therefore including only the region with homology to the bacterial CPFAS gene, without the N-terminal region having homology to FAD-binding oxidases. The PCR primers used to amplify this region of GhCPFAS-1 included SpeI flanking sites (underlined), and were Forward primer: 5′-TTACTAGTATGGATGCTGCACATGGTATCT-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 19) and Reverse primer: 5′-TTACTAGTTCAATCATCCATGAAGGAATATGCAGAA-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 20). The amplicon was inserted into the Spa site of 35S-pORE4 to generate pCW618 (35S-GhCPFAS*).

The construct was introduced into Agrobacterium and used to infiltrate N. benthamiana leaves in transient assays as before, in various combinations with other genes. Analyses of the total lipid content of the infiltrated zones of these leaves indicated that GhCPFAS* efficiently produced DHS in leaves (FIG. 6). The level of DHS produced in the presence of GhCPFAS* was approximately 7% of the total fatty acids in leaf lipids, with an overall pathway conversion efficiency of 47% for conversion of oleic acid to DHS. In comparison, EcCPFAS produced less than 1% DHS in total fatty acids in leaf lipids with a conversion efficiency of 4%. GhCPFAS* was therefore used throughout the remainder of this study.

In a further experiment, the production of DHS by GhCPFAS* was used to directly compare the efficiency of p19 or V2 to aid the simultaneous over-expression of the GhCPFAS* transgene and silencing of the NbFAD2 gene, that is, where silencing of an endogenous gene was required to maximise flux into a novel biosynthetic pathway. Various combinations of GhCPFAS*, DGAT1, Oleosin, V2, p19, and hpNbFAD2 were infiltrated into N. benthamiana leaves and the production of DHS determined (FIG. 7). In the absence of hpNbFAD2, a slightly greater level of DHS production was observed in the presence of p19 compared to V2. However, in the presence of the hairpin hpNbFAD2, greater levels of DHS were observed with the use of V2. V2 allowed the greatest levels of substrate (18:1) to be produced and also the greatest levels of DHS production. Overall the use of V2 in the combined overexpression and silencing scenario generated approximately 30% more DHS in the leaf assays compared to the use of p19.

A critical step in TAG synthesis pathways involves the removal of the acyl group from the PC head group into the CoA pool. Once acyl groups enter the CoA pool, they become available for the TAG synthesis pathway termed the ‘Kennedy’ pathway that includes the last committed step of TAG formation catalysed by the DGAT enzyme. The movement of DHS, produced on the PC fraction of leaves, into leaf TAGs was tested by combining GhCPFAS* with DGAT1, Oleosin and hpNbFAD2 (FIG. 10). DHS produced by GhCPFAS*, DGAT1 and Oleosin was found in leaf TAGs at approximately 7% of the total fatty acid content in TAG, with a conversion efficiency of oleic acid to DHS of 55%. The inclusion of hpNbFAD2 boosted the percentage of DHS in leaf TAG from 7% to 15%, while the conversion efficiency remained unchanged at 55%. These results indicated that the combination of V2 and hpNbFAD2 doubled the flux of DHS into the metabolic pathway, using in addition CPFAS*+AtDGAT1+Oleosin, to produce plant oils having higher concentrations of cyclopropanated fatty acids.

To demonstrate whether the DHS was exchanged readily between the PC and CoA pools, a further experiment was performed which added AtFAE1 to the combination of enzymes. The present inventors reasoned that the fatty acid DHS, containing a mid-chain propane ring, was likely to form a structure similar to and intermediate between that of a saturated and a monounsaturated C18 fatty acid and that if DHS was transferred from the PC fraction into the CoA pool, it would be a suitable substrate for AtFAE1 to produce elongated DHS (eDHS). To examine if DHS, produced on PC, was transferred into the CoA pool of leaves, the chimeric 35S:AtFAE1 gene was included in combination with genes encoding V2, GhCPFAS* and hpNbFAD2, each under the control of the 35S promoter. The results of the fatty acid analysis are shown in FIG. 11. Total lipids analysed 5 dpi were enriched for DHS and a new metabolite. The new metabolite was confirmed as eDHS, an elongated product of DHS with an additional 2 carbon atoms, by using standard GC/MS techniques (FIG. 12). The conversion efficiency of DHS to eDHS averaged 15% across 6 samples compared to the conversion of 18:1 to 20:1 which averaged 28%. Collectively, these experiments provided evidence that DHS produced on PC was moved efficiently into the CoA pool and accumulated into leaf oils via expression of a combination of endogenous genes and transgenic genes.

Example 7 Transgenic Plant Studies

EcCPFAS in Arabidopsis Seeds

The EcCPFAS fragment (Example 6) was cloned into the EcoRI site of pCW442 generating pCW393 (FP1-EcCPFAS) a seed-specific expression vector using the truncated FP1 promoter to drive expression of EcCPFAS. This promoter is useful for expression of transgenes in oilseeds (Ellerstrom et al., 1996). This vector was transformed into Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain AGL1, and used to transform Arabidopsis plants of the fad2/fae1 double mutant background via the floral dip method. Transgenic seeds were selected on media containing kanamycin (40 mg/L) and T2 seed of these plants analysed for DHS content as described in Example 1.

Seven independent transformed lines of Arabidopsis were analysed and the DHS content ranged from trace levels through to 1% DHS, consistent with the studies described above.

GhCPFAS in Seeds of Arabidopsis and Safflower

A plant binary expression vector was designed for the expression of transgenes using a promoter derived from the promoter of the AtOlesoin1 gene (TAIR website gene annotation At4g25140). The promoter was modified in that 6 basepairs within the 1192 bp sequence were omitted to delete common restriction enzyme sites. The AtOleosin promoter has been used for the strong seed-specific expression of transgenes in safflower and Brassica species (Nykiforuk et al., 2011; Van Rooijen and Moloney, 1995). This promoter is thought to be bi-directional, directing not only strong seed-specific expression of transgenes placed at the 3′ end of the promoter, but also generating transcripts in the opposite direction from the 5′ end of the promoter in a range of tissues. The Arabidopsis oleosin promoter shares features of the Brassica napus promoter, characterised to have a bi-functional nature (Sadanandom et al., 1996). The promoter was chemically synthesised and subcloned into pGEMT-Easy and an EcoRI fragment of this vector was blunted via the Klenow enzyme fill-in reaction and ligated into the Klenow-blunted HindIII site of pCW265 (Belide et al., 2011), generating pCW600 (AtOleosinP::empty). A SpeI-flanked fragment of pCW618 encompassing the GhCPFAS* coding region was ligated into pCW600, generating pCW619 (AtOloesin:GhCPFAS*).

This pCW619 vector was introduced into Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain AGL1 and used to transform Arabidopsis of either the fad2 or fad2fae1 mutant genotypes via the floral dip method. The same construct was also used to transform safflower of the variety 5317 (high oleic background) via a method using grafting (Belide et al., 2011). 15 independent transformed lines of the fad2 mutant of Arabidopsis transformed with pCW619 were obtained and T2 seeds of these plants were analysed. DHS was detected in the seedoil to about 1% of total fatty acids. 20 independent transformed lines of safflower 5317 transformed with pCW619 were generated and seeds of these plants harvested at maturity. DHS contents in seeds were analysed and found to be detectable but low, being below 1% of total fatty acids in the seedoil.

Discussion

These experiments showed that the silencing suppressor protein V2 was advantageous in allowing efficient over-expression of one or more genes together with the silencing of genes, in the same cell. Although p19 allowed excellent over-expression of transgenes and was more effective than V2 as a silencing suppressor, p19 also partially blocked hairpin-based silencing of endogenous genes. It is postulated that V2 and its functional homologs block the co-suppression pathway which utilises RNA dependent RNA polymerase and SGS3 and thereby maximises expression of a desired gene, but has little effect on the hairpin-RNA or microRNA silencing pathways and thereby allows concomitant gene silencing. The use of V2 also allowed the efficient expression of numerous additional genes to the cells to form a new metabolic pathway, using either individual (separate) vectors or genes combined on single constructs, and thereby entire transgenic pathways could be assembled and tested within a few days in the transient assays. The present inventors used the V2-based leaf assays to determine that GhCPFAS* was much better than EcCPFAS in producing DHS. Finally, the optimised leaf assays demonstrated that the unusual fatty acid DHS, produced on PC, was efficiently unloaded into the CoA pool and accumulated in leaf oil. The accumulation of 15% DHS in leaf oils reported here with GhCPFAS* exceeds levels reported with any CPFAS expressed in any plant cell reported in previous studies. Such efficient movements of DHS between lipid pools in leaf cells indicated that leaves might be an ideal location for the production of DHS rather than or alternative to oilseeds.

Example 8 Additional Genes for Increasing Cyclopropanated Fatty Acids

Preparation of Hairpin RNAi Constructs for Down-Regulation of Lipid Handling Genes

In order to test whether the level of cyclopropanated fatty acids, specifically DHS, could be further increased, several candidate lipid handling genes were isolated from N. benthamiana and hairpin RNA constructs prepared for down-regulating these genes. These constructs were designed to be tested in the N. benthamiana leaf transient assay system as described in Example 6, in the presence of the 35S-V2, 35S-GhCPFAS* and 35S-AtDGAT1 constructs, but using a 35S-WRI1 gene (U.S. 61/580574; Vanhercke et al., 2012) instead of the hpNbFAD2 construct to increase the availability of fatty acyl substrates in the assay. The assays also included a 35S-GFP marker gene to allow visual confirmation of prolonged gene expression in the transient assays after infiltration with the Agrobacterium mixtures. Candidate lipid handling genes that were tested included sequences encoding NbLACS4, NbLACS7, NbPLDz1, NbPLDz2, and NbLPCAT1. The nucleotide sequences of the protein coding regions and the corresponding amino acid sequences of these genes are set forth in SEQ ID NOs: 91, 93, 95, 97 and 99 respectively. The nucleotide sequences of the gene fragments used to prepare these hairpin RNA constructs are given in SEQ ID NOs: 101 to 105 respectively. The hairpin RNA constructs were made in pHellsgate12 using the gene fragments and the standard methods described in Helliwell and Waterhouse (2003).

N. benthamiana leaves were infiltrated with mixtures of A. tumefaciens strains AGL1 or VG3101 containing the following plant expression constructs—35S:GFP, 35S:V2 (in VG3101; Naim et al., 2012), 35S:AtWRI1 (U.S. 61/580574; Vanhercke et al., 2012), 35S:AtDGAT1 (U.S. 61/580574; Vanhercke et al., 2012), and 35S:GhCPFAS* in pE1776 (Bao et al. 2002). To test the effect of inhibiting the lipid handling genes, some of the mixtures additionally contained one of the following five hairpin RNA constructs for down-regulating the N. benthamiana genes—NbLACS4, NbLACS7, NbPLDz1, NbPLDz2, and NbLPCAT1. Infiltration mixes were prepared with each AGL1/VG3101 at 0.3 OD600 units in infiltration buffer (5 mM MES, 5 mM MgSO₄, 500 μM acetosyringone; 0.5× culture volume), infiltrated on the underside of 5-6 week old N. benthamiana leaves, and the plants left for five days at 24° C. with a 10:14 light:dark cycle in growth cabinets. On the fifth day, prolonged expression of the transgenes in the infiltrated region was confirmed by presence of the GFP signal. Leaf samples from the infiltrated zones were harvested and freeze-dried overnight. Total lipids were extracted from the dried leaf samples using chloroform:methanol:0.1 M KCl=2:1:1, followed by an additional chloroform extraction on the remaining aqueous phase. Fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) were prepared from the lipid extracts using 0.1 M sodium methoxide in methanol followed by hexane extraction. The FAME were analysed on a Varian CP-3800 GC-FID fitted with a BPX70 capillary column (Phenomenex 30 m×0.32 mm×0.25 μm). Average wt % s of DHS-FAME and C18:1-FAME (from total FAME) were from at least 6 replicate infiltrations.

The data are shown in FIG. 13. In comparison to expression of the 35S:GhCPFAS* with the V2, AtDGAT1 and WRI1 genes, which produced an average DHS-FAME level of 3.3% of the total extracted fatty acids, addition of the five hairpin constructs resulted in an increase in average DHS FAME levels to between 3.6% and 5.9%. The greatest increase in DHS-FAME was seen with hpNbLPCAT1 (FIG. 13). There was also a trend of higher C18:1-FAME levels with the added hairpin constructs that may have contributed to the increase in DHS-FAME, as C18:1 was the substrate for GhCPFAS*.

Discussion

The initial hypothesis behind the addition of hairpin constructs (except for hpNbLACS7) was to determine possible routes to DHS production and accumulation that could be blocked by silencing certain components of the oil accumulation pathway. However, contrary to the inventors prediction the addition of hairpin constructs to silence the five putative lipid handling enzymes all showed an increase in DHS in N. benthamiana leaf when co-expressed with GhCPFAS*.

The increase in DHS was possibly due to an increase in substrate availability for GhCPFAS*, as indicated by the trend of higher C18:1 seen with the addition of the hairpin constructs. In the case of NbLACS7 this enzyme is known to be located in the peroxisome and is thought to contribute to fatty acid breakdown (Fulda et al., 2002). Therefore the increase in DHS with the addition of hpNbLACS7 could be due to two possibilities—inhibition of DHS breakdown or decreased breakdown of C18:1. Based on the increase seen in C18:1 the latter explanation is more likely to be the cause of increased DHS. The combination of hairpin constructs against lipid handling enzymes as well as combining these with hpNbFAD2 may further increase DHS production and accumulation in N. benthamiana leaf by GhCPFAS*.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.

The present application claims priority from U.S. 61/580,567 filed 27 Dec. 2011, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

All publications discussed and/or referenced herein are incorporated herein in their entirety.

Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles or the like which has been included in the present specification is solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention as it existed before the priority date of each claim of this application.

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The invention claimed is:
 1. A process for producing extracted plant oil containing dihydrosterculic acid (DHS) and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof, the process comprising i) obtaining recombinant plant cells comprising DHS, and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof, the DI-IS or fatty acid derivative thereof being esterified in triacylglycerols in the cells, wherein at least 7% of the total fatty acid in extractable oil in the cells is DHS and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof, wherein the recombinant plant cells are comprised in a leaf, and, ii) extracting oil from the cells so as to thereby produce the extracted plant oil.
 2. The process of claim 1, wherein step i) comprises obtaining pieces of leaf tissue from at least 100 plants, which on average comprise at least about 7% DHS as a percentage of the total fatty acids in the extractable oil in the leaf tissues.
 3. The process of claim 1, wherein at least 10% of the total fatty acid in the extracted oil is DHS and/or a fatty acid derivative thereof.
 4. The process of claim 1, wherein i) the fatty acid derivative comprises a cyclo-propyi group or is a branched chain fatty acid having a methyl group as the branch and/or ii) the derivative comprises 2, 4 or 6 more carbons in the acyl chain when compared to DHS.
 5. The process of claim 4, wherein the fatty acid derivative comprising a cyclo-propyl group or a methyl group is isosteanic acid. with the methyl croup attached to C9 or C10.
 6. The process of claim 1, wherein there is no detectable fatty acid. derivative of DHS present in the extracted oil.
 7. The process of claim 1, wherein the recombinant plant cells comprise an exogenous polynucleotide which encodes a cyclopropane fatty acid synthetase (CPFAS).
 8. The process of claim 1, wherein at least 7% of the total fatty acid content in the extracted oil is DHS.
 9. The process of claim 1, wherein at least 7% of the total fatty acid content in the extracted oil is isostearic acid with a methyl group attached to C9 or C10.
 10. the process of claim 1, wherein the extracted oil has a ratio of oleic acid to DHS and/or fatty acid derivative thereof in its total fatty acid content of less than 2:1.
 11. The process of claim 10, wherein the ratio of oleic acid to DHS and/or fatty acid, derivative thereof is less than 1.5:1.
 12. The process of claim 1, wherein less than 10% sterculic acid and/or malvalic acid is present in the extracted oil. 